


Bride of the Owl

by Star_ofthe_Sea



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alcohol, Bird antics with Loser, Cannibalism, Characters and relationships will be added as they appear, Depression, Disassociative Identity Disorder (DID), Disturbing Content, Extreme morbidity, Extremely Graphic Violence, F/M, Genderbent Characters, Hallucinations, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pregnancy, Rape, Sibling Bonding, Torture, Vomiting, ambiguously bisexual Rize, autocannibalism, bisexual Kaneki, dark side of CCG explored, fem! Kaneki Ken, male! Takatsuki Sen | Eto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-04 11:37:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 39,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4136013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_ofthe_Sea/pseuds/Star_ofthe_Sea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last thing that Kaneki Kanna expected was to become a mother at nineteen, especially due to her being a hybrid ghoul. On the run, pregnant, and searching for answers, she must keep herself, her friends, and her growing child safe. But what price will she have to pay to do so?</p><p>This was inspired by a kink meme prompt and will be a long and very plotty fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Taste of Death

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a response to a prompt on the TG kink meme.
> 
> Le prompt:
> 
> Eto/Kaneki genderswap, Eto and Kaneki have sex (con, dub-con, or non-con is fine) during the five days she spends at Aogiri before Jason tortures her. Explicit and non-explicit sex and aftermath are both fine.
> 
> It turns out three months later that Kaneki is pregnant by the infamous Owl (maybe cravings lead to discovering something humans and ghouls can both eat besides coffee?) and the situation gets completely out of hand: V, Aogiri, the CCG, and Kanou are all after her and the baby just makes it worse. Does the manager find out? Does he want to help care for his grandchild? Maybe the Yasuhisa twins end up helping Kaneki? Do the CCG find out her identity and the identity of the father?
> 
> Anything goes as long as fem! Kaneki ends up pregnant by male! Eto and shit hits the fan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This first chapter takes place during Kaneki's torture by Jason. Prepare for a ton of super disturbing shit.

The scent of blood hung heavy and thick in the air, tingling like lightning and smelling like rich, dark chocolate as it filled her nose. Kaneki idly wondered if the taste truly was the same to her changed tastebuds before remembering that chocolate tasted like chalk to her now and she could no longer enjoy the bittersweet confection that she used to eat with unsweetened milk tea, her once-favorite drink. The idle thoughts were swept away as her empty stomach growled like a starving tiger, and she gradually raised heavy lids as she tried to locate the source of the scent. She cast her gaze about in confusion, saliva dribbling down the insides of her mouth to pool on her dry tongue as the hunger pangs increased. Where was she?

The memories came rushing back as she looked at the too-familiar blackness, felt the rough cloth of the blindfold where it sat, soaked with sweat and tears to the point where the salt was crusting on her cheeks and eyelids. If she could remove it she would only see the dreaded room with the checkered floor splattered with abstract designs of red and brown from blood, so much blood, her own blood. 

She could hear her breathing increase its pace as she trembled in horror, jerking against the chains that kept her shackled to the dreaded chair, knocking into the dreaded bucket the _bucket full of fingers and toes and flesh **flesh fleSH HER FLESH ThAt hE fed hER bit By bit To HEAL HER AFTER TEARING HER APART.**_ Severed digits and a tongue poured out from the bucket into a pool of spreading blood, adding more red to the floor and making her eyes roll back in her head as a fresh wave of scent washed over her.

Kaneki's mouth fell open and she fought harder against her restraints. The hunger ravaged her insides like a chained beast, clawing and howling for fresh blood and tender flesh to sate its appetite. She could hear the chains creaking, feel her raw skin break and bleed where the steel strained against her softened ankles and wrists as she pulled and kicked. The chair wobbled and fell, wood clattering and causing a loud splash as the bucket was shoved into the pool of blood from her kicking. 

Her head struck the ground and the centipede in her ear jerked about for a moment before stilling again. She didn't care that the flesh and blood had once been her own, that the severed tongue lying in the grisly puddle had been cut free of her mouth only hours before. She wriggled and writhed, kakugan active and wide beneath the blindfold as she shuffled towards the sustenance that could quell the raging hunger.

"Starving, starving, _oh Kami I'm starving meat give me **meat and flesh and blood MAKE IT STOP IT HURTS I CAN'T TAKE IT PLEASE I'LL DIE I'LL DIE!**_ "

She strained her neck, feeling the wet congealing blood against her cheek and in her hair _(It's filthy anyway, it doesn't matter)_ and she opened her mouth, keening and growling and whining like a stray dog begging for scraps. She turned her head and tasted the blood, the crimson liquid staining her face as she lapped it up like a child would slurp melting ice cream. Soon she began chewing on a finger, and then a toe, and then more and more, the beast purring and speaking to her with Rize's voice as it praised and encouraged and mocked her all at once _(You're so hungry and it tastes good, doesn't it? You're just too delicious, go on and eat yourself it'll help you live you don't want to die, do you? Good girl, eat the scraps he leaves you and live)._

"So very hungry, aren't you? How pathetic, lying in your own filth and eating scraps like a starving bitch in an alleyway."

Kaneki paused and raised her head, blood and bits of flesh and muscle clinging to her face and hair and neck, her own tongue hanging from her mouth _(tender and delicious, you like it don't you?)_ The voice was jarring in its honey sweet mockery, familiar and yet not. She didn't care, the stranger didn't want to steal her meal, if they approached she'd tear free and eat them too. She heard faint footsteps, smelled the ghoul _(yes, he's a ghoul, but he smells odd, did he just eat? Or is he human? Both? Neither? I'm **hungry** , never mind him.)_

"Do you taste that good, I wonder? I've never tasted hybrid meat. Or has your hunger robbed you of all reason so you can't even taste the difference between yourself and human meat?" 

The strange ghoul _(ghoul, an odd ghoul but a ghoul, ignore him and eat your fill)_ was standing near the doorway, observing her but not interfering as she gobbled down the contents of the emptied bucket. He began pacing the room, and she strained her ears to follow him—he might change his mind and want her meal after all, and she wasn't done. Her attention was fully captured at last when he suddenly seemed to vanish from the other side of the room and reappear beside her, crouching down to observe her gore-stained appearance from less than a foot away. 

Kaneki growled low in her throat, turning her face towards the intruder and baring her teeth. Blood and saliva dribbled in a grisly pinkish mess down her chin, and she snapped at him when he swiped a bit with his thumb and smelled it. 

"You do smell delicious. Well, at least your blood does. You'd need a good bath before I'd consider taking a bite. You're disgusting, all covered in sweat and oils and dirt. Yamori really has been letting you stew in your own filth. Ah, but a torture maniac like him hardly cares for the comfort and appearance of his victim, ne~, Ka-ne-ki-chan?" 

He spoke in a sing-song manner, sounding morbidly childlike, and the human part of her shuddered as her nose catalogued his contrasting scent, the scent of a strong and dangerous adult with the same darker undertone as the Manager, Yomo, and Jason. _Kakuja._ Her hunger finally sated from gorging on several pounds of flesh and bone, Kaneki swallowed the severed pinkie protruding from between her teeth, and the intruder made a small sound of amusement as he observed the movement.

"I really should write this down, I could use it in my next novel," 

He commented, giggling a bit as she growled and shook her head, trying to dislodge the blindfold. The centipede wriggled again in her ear from the movement, squirming and twitching and digging claws into the delicate insides of her ear canal. She shrieked as a claw ripped into her eardrum, smacking her head and wriggling as she rubbed her head against her shoulder, keening as the blindfold loosened slightly. Bandaged fingers appeared, untying the knot and pulling away the grayish cloth. Kaneki blinked, kakugan and human eye alike wide and dilated as the dim light of the room entered her pupils.

She recognized the ghoul now, vaguely. Eto, the mysterious bandaged ghoul that sat by quietly as Tatara had impaled her in front of the assembled Aogiri forces. She knew nothing about him, very few did, but as her hunger settled and her human and ghoul selves started to do battle again, she was just coherent enough to realize that the way he was staring at her was unsettling. He gasped in surprised delight as the centipede emerged from her ear, slithering from the passage onto the blood-soaked floor and scuttling hurriedly away, and tilted his head to examine her exposed ear, streaked with blood and inner ear fluids. 

She was a filthy disgusting mess, reeking of blood, sweat, bodily oils, and traces of urine (Jason had even robbed her of that privacy, forcibly pulling down her skirt and panties and laughing at her humiliation as she was forced to relieve herself in a bucket and chastised for making the room stink). That same human part of her itched to scrub away at her skin until she was red and raw and the shameful feelings washed away with the grime coating her body. Eto left her there, lying on the floor and shattered inside and out, and despite the discomfort she gradually went numb and succumbed to exhaustion. She drifted and dozed for a time, at one point registering the chair being moved and the feeling of her clothes being changed, she lashed out, but heard the hushed murmurs of Nico as he crooned apologies to her, wiping her leaden body down with a wet cloth. 

She was too drained to feel as embarrassed as she should have, and unlike Jason or Eto he was actively helping her, so she drifted off again, the dampness of sweat and blood exchanged for the remnants of her sponge bath. The small gesture made her human self murmur happily, though Rize complained about still being cuffed and commented that if Nico truly wanted to help he would let her go free and run back to the relative safety of Anteiku.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

She didn't know how long it had been, minutes, hours, days, weeks? Jason returned again and soon her freshly cleaned clothes were ruined as thoroughly as before. He laughed long and hard upon witnessing the overturned bucket, and she paid the price for eating her fill in the loss of more of her blood and flesh. She saw and heard Rize more frequently, and hallucinated scenes of death and violence and loss. She saw her mother die again, felt the pain of her Aunt's disdain again, screamed as Rize ripped her open, witnessed the death of Fueguchi Ryouko, fought the young inspector on the river bank, battled the restaurant scrapper, fled from Tsukiyama, and intermittently returned to the horrific checkerboard room and Yamori's twisted games from the depths of her memories. 

Sometimes the events were the same and other times they went differently—did she not let her mother leave? Did she protest against her aunt's mistreatment? Did she escape Rize? Fight and kill the investigators to protect Hinami and her mother? Beat Tsukiyama at his own game and devour him? Turn on Yamori? No. She didn't, and all of that was in the past, too late to change...except the last one, though the opportunity was unlikely to come to pass.

Yamori had her weakened from drugs, pain, and hunger, restrained and helpless to fight or flee. Nico bathed her again. The centipede was inside her again. The bucket was full and overflowing, reeking of blood and rotting flesh. Kei, the sweet and caring mother, and little Kouta, her quiet and obedient little boy, were lying still and cold in the corner, decomposing together in silence. What was she? She was _weak. A **failure,** a **monster,** a **human,** a **ghoul,** a **hybrid** made by the **lying doctor.** His own personal **Frankenstein's monster.**_ An _abomination_ with nowhere to go and no one to save her.

She awoke from a dream...or was it another flashback? More hallucinations? She was having trouble telling the difference. Rize's giggles rang in her ears as she blinked open her eyes once more. Her blindfold was off again, and she saw that the room was the same as it had been the last time her eyes were uncovered, filthy and dank and stinking of blood, fear, vomit, and rotten flesh. Yamori was gone, the designated cleaners were not present, and Nico had left after sponging her off and changing her clothes. 

The feel of clean cloth, clean hair, and clean skin...it was a luxury she had dearly missed, and she could almost cry at the thought that this little gesture meant so much to her now that she couldn't change clothes or bathe on her own, that her captivity made her so grateful for little details like these. However, these thoughts ceased to hold her attention when her hearing picked up the sound of the door opening.

"Hello again, Kaneki-chan. Did you miss me?"

Eto had returned. His footsteps were so light and quiet that she had to strain her hearing to catch them, and he was skipping gaily around the room in a manner that probably should have sent loud thumps and thuds echoing through the room from the impacts of his feet on the tile. Leave it to a ghoul to defy expectations, even small ones like so. The ghoul hummed a little tune as he skip-hopped over the corpses of Kei and Kouto, and a part of her, buried beneath Rize and the pain and hunger, screamed and cried at the reminder of how she failed them and let them die, that _in choosing both she chose neither, **just like her FOOLISH MOTHER.**_

A hoarse, choked little sound escaped her parched throat, not quite a whine but not a groan either, and Eto paused. In less time than it took to blink he was standing in front of her, leaning forward until his face was level with hers. He was standing so close to her that Kaneki could feel his body heat, the warmth sending a shiver up her spine.

"Ne, ne, was that an answer? So you did get bored of Yamori! He's quite unpleasant, but he's very useful, otherwise we might have just killed him." Eto cocked his head, the outline of a smile appearing beneath the wrapping of bandages."Unfortunately for you, you aren't that great a bargaining chip. Perhaps if the doctor had held on to you instead of letting you to your own devices, and forced you to train more we would have considered more. At least you're keeping our resident psychopath occupied, having him kill his subordinates so often was starting to cut down our ranks of cannon fodder." Eto turned slightly, facing her from the side and dropping down to sit on the floor.

Kaneki growled low in her throat, ugly and harsh with anger. She didn't care if Eto would punish her for it, she hated him. She wanted to rip free of her binds and tear out his throat, silence those mocking chortles and vile words. Her ghoul self raged against her captivity and subjugation, while her human self protested against the cruelty and lack of care for the regular ghouls caught up in Aogiri's madness. 

Aogiri's executives were the very worst, and she remembered Ayato's assertion that he was a "softie" compared to his comrades, the severed heads of Banjou's friends hanging from Jason's grip, Tatara's uncaring dismissal of her after running her through, the ruthless attacks of the Bin brothers against any who dared disobey or ask questions. They deserved to die, to be erased by the CCG or by ghouls strong enough to match them. And in that moment she longed for the strength to do that herself, the mental fortitude and physical power to stop these monsters for good. But it was not to be.

"Oh? Are you angry? _Good._ " Eto's kakugan glowed from within the bandages, his scent growing sharper as his RC cells gathered beneath his skin and advertised his strength in response to her challenge. "You play at being a pacifist, but you have parts of the binge eater in you, an alpha ghoul that fought off strong opponents with ease. If only you unlocked that earlier instead of fearing and repressing it, then you might have been strong enough to fight off Jason like she could, we might have recruited you happily and given you a position of honor in our ranks. It's too late for that now. Jason will kill you before too long, and the bloody butterfly inside you will stay trapped in its human chrysalis."

 _"Shut up."_ The words left her in a low snarl, worthy of a cornered wolf as it stared down the barrel of the hunter's gun. Eto went silent for a moment, staring at Kaneki in curiosity before chuckling darkly and standing again, moving towards her with all the deadly grace of the predator that he was. He stood in front of her once more, between her spread knees, and leaned forward so that their foreheads touched.

"You're much more interesting than I expected. How delightful," he murmured, shadowed eyes boring into her own. His kakugan no longer shone, and she could just barely make out the color of his irises—a deep rich green like healthy grass or the newly grown leaves of trees in spring. She met his gaze with eyes of polished steel, cold and hard and angry, but the staring contest didn't last long. Her body was leaden and even speaking had drained her reserves of strength. Kaneki could feel the encroaching darkness pulling her under. Her eyelids flickered, and she faintly heard Eto's eerie little giggle as they finally slid shut and she slumped in her seat, unable to fight her own body.

Her awareness returned gradually, and when her eyes opened and focused again she saw that she had been moved and rearranged, stretched out on the floor (it was actually clean for once, how strange) with Eto kneeling between her parted thighs and staring at her face, his fingers playing with her hair. The touch was gentle but unnerving, and Kaneki flinched, frozen by shock and fear under the male that was too close, too comfortable as he loomed over her and touched her in ways only Hide had ever been allowed to, as her best friend and brother in all but blood. Only Hide and Hinami were allowed to touch her hair or her face, and both of them touched her with care and fondness, not this strange exploratory touching that set off a warning alarm in her mind, clouded and confused as her thoughts were.

The hand trailed from the tousled white locks that splayed around her head like a halo (when had they turned white? They'd been black, and then iron grey, and now snowy white?) and caressed her forehead and cheeks, skimming over the soft skin of her throat as light as the touch of a feather. Eto traced the rise of her collarbone and down her sternum, between the mounds of her unbound breasts, and even further down, over her navel to her hipbone. Kaneki shuddered as his bandaged thumb rubbed back and forth over the shape of the bone, letting loose a small squeak of surprise at the pleasant sensation. Eto chuckled and skimmed his hand over her stomach again, raising the hem of her shirt and licking a line from the waistband of her shorts to her navel and causing her to yelp.

His other hand stroked down her back, caressing the base of her skull and continuing down her spine until his fingers rested over her kakuhou, rubbing gently and sending sparks of liquid pleasure into her stomach. She gasped in shock, eyes wide, and if the RC inhibitors weren't still in her bloodstream her kagune would have emerged. She felt her tensed muscles forcefully relax, and as Eto continued rubbing that spot her body began responding, her nipples gradually hardening as wet heat slowly gathered between her thighs. The male ghoul cupped her left breast in his free hand, his hand beneath her shirt as he lightly pinched her erect nipple and kneaded the surrounding flesh.

Kaneki's mind was hazed from confusion, exhaustion, and lust. She was a virgin, though she had touched herself before, and this was something else, more intense and foreign than anything she had ever experienced. She wanted to stop this, to push him away and deny him the right to toy with her like this, yet she wanted more, craved the pleasure that rang through her body and made her blood sing in her veins, so different from the agony she had endlessly faced for so long.

Her legs spread wider and her body trembled from the building intensity of the pleasure and the confusing arousal that made her dizzy and breathless as he sharply prodded the sensitive spot. She instinctively arched her back, giving him easier access, and cried out as she felt his teeth scrape the shell of his ear and his tongue teasing her throat, tasting the faint mist of sweat that dusted her skin as her blood heated with unfamiliar warmth.

She didn't realize that he had pulled down her mutilated pants in the midst of distraction, not until she felt her legs being bent and the fabric sliding down her calves and ankles, and she abruptly noticed that she was now half naked. Nico hadn't provided her with any fresh undergarments, and her most private and vulnerable anatomy was now on full display to Eto's eyes. Kaneki pulled at the cuffs still binding her hands, wanting to cover herself, but Eto shuffled lower and the next thing she knew he had parted the bandages on his face and his tongue was on her. 

Kaneki cried out at the feeling, thighs clenching and toes curling as he licked over her leisurely in long steady swipes, tasting the flavor of her arousal with the air of a cat lapping up cream. He teased her entrance with his tongue, pressing on her hymen and shallowly flicking his tongue in and out of her, slowly rubbing her clit with his thumb in time with the rubbing of her kakuhou. When he penetrated her with his fingers, the bandages getting soaked with fluid and scraping pleasantly against her inner walls, it drove her higher and higher until she finally fell from the peak of pleasure with a strangled cry.

Kaneki was lost in ecstasy, shaking from the force of her orgasm, and she mewled quietly as she came down to earth again, her body loose and relaxed. Aches she didn't know she had were gone, and she was so relaxed and exhausted that she nearly drifted off to a sated sleep. Unfortunately, the hazy cloud of relaxation began to fade when Eto decided to remind her of his presence, cleaning his face and fingers of her fluids with a wide grin on his face.

"You really are delicious, perfectly balanced between human-sweet and ghoul-sour. Does that apply to the rest of you, though?" He mused, and then grinned again. This time, he bared his teeth, and she experienced a flash of the same visceral fear she felt when Tsukiyama had had her broken and bloody on the floor of the church, when Rize stood over her with kagune extended and her blood on her lips. Was he about to eat her alive? 

She was bound and helpless before him and she hated it, wriggling and trying to escape his grip but not having the strength to get away. She was strung out from more than a week of nothing but pain and exhaustion and starvation, her kagune refusing to emerge despite her attempts to call on it because of the drugs in her veins. He was ridiculously strong for such a short and slim...man? Boy? She couldn't shake him off of her even when she called on all of her remaining strength, and outside of the room the only friends she had were either locked away or on the other side of Tokyo. She would find no help here.

She thrashed and kicked, struggled and swore, pulling on her cuffs until her raw wrists were bleeding again, but her efforts were in vain. Kaneki's thighs were caught and lifted, bent upwards until her knees were level with her shoulders, and she barely had time to register that he was pressing against her before he pulled her hips towards him and slid inside. She expected to feel pain, but it was nothing, a mere pinch as she was stretched wide around him, and she was caught between the urge to moan at the sensation or to burst into humiliated tears for being brought so very low.

This was hardly the way she pictured losing her virginity, bound and held in place by a ghoul on the floor of a torture chamber. Even though he was being gentle, it wasn't because of love or care—he probably found it fun to wind her up and just wanted to get a stronger reaction out of her. He was a stranger that was....was this rape? She had tried to get away from him, tried to protest and reject this, but at the same time it felt deliciously good (wasn't it supposed to hurt?), and she felt little else but shame and reluctant passion as he started to thrust inside her, sheathing and withdrawing himself in a leisurely rhythm.

Their gazes were locked, Eto's eyes half-lidded and still human-green while Kaneki's were wide open, her right eye still as grey as the sky during rain while her left had transformed, her sclera pitch black and iris as red as fresh blood, boring into her captor with a confused jumble of conflicting emotions. He groaned quietly as he angled her hips, going deeper inside than before and brushing against something as he thrust in that made her gasp and throw back her head as it sent tingling electric sparks through her nerves. Eto leaned down to nip at her exposed throat, pushing down the collar with his chin and leisurely marking the pale flesh with sharp little bites that stopped just short of breaking the skin.

Upon reaching the junction of her neck and shoulder he bit down harder, causing her blood to run into his mouth and stain the collar of her shirt. Kaneki shuddered and tensed, fearing that he would rip open her throat, but he simply stayed there, teeth embedded in her flesh but not ripping it free. He finally picked up the pace, and soon her body was rocking back and forth from the force of his thrusting, and she started to pant quietly, staring at the ceiling as teardrops trailed from her eyes and into her hair. She could feel the same sensations as before, multiplied exponentially by the stimulation inside her, and when Eto flicked his thumb over her clit her orgasm hit her again, more forceful than it ever had before.

Kaneki was quiet this time, her mouth open in a soundless cry and her eyes squeezed shut as the pressure in her groin snapped and her entire body tensed, locking in place and shuddering for over a minute before she collapsed limply, her head lolling to the side as her bangs covered her eyes. She felt Eto bite down harder and go still above her as trickling warmth flooded her insides. Her human self recoiled at the thought that he came inside of her before her ghoul self cut in, reminding her that as a hybrid she was most likely sterile and she was going to be killed before too long anyway. Eto moved off of her then, withdrawing his teeth from her shoulder and pulling out of her. He tucked himself away with a sigh and grabbed her discarded pants, pulling them up her legs and re-buttoning them.

Kaneki was half-asleep, barely noticing what Eto was doing as he finished redressing her and placed her back in the chair. After arranging her limp form back into the position he first found her in, he yawned loudly, arms stretched over his head, and left the room without a goodbye or acknowledgement of any kind. The door closed, and shortly afterwards Kaneki lost the battle to stay conscious. Her last thought was that at this point she might have preferred if Eto had just snapped her neck and spared her the slow and painful death Jason had planned for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm addressing this before someone throws a shit fit about it. Rape is rape. If consent is not given or retracted then it is rape. Kaneki was confused, disassociating, and under extreme stress, and definitely did not consent to what happened. Orgasms are a physiological reaction to sexual stimuli, and people can orgasm during rape. So if you want to say otherwise, I've just stated my views (which are correct and entirely factual) and protestors can zip it.


	2. Fight and Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaneki escapes and deals with the aftermath of her ordeal. Violence, trauma, and plenty of Tsukiyama-mocking. This one is a bit longer than the first chapter, and most chapters will probably be around this length or longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of summarizing and skimming canon events in this (we all know what happens so there's no need to rewrite every painstaking detail down). Kaneki seriously needs a counselor, but the meeting would be a disaster if she did go to see one, so we'll just be watching the fallout of her trauma and mental instability as it comes.

As things went, Jason was the one to fall and be eaten alive. After Eto had left he returned just in time to cut off her digits again and bring a new centipede to insert in her ear, re-injecting the RC suppressant drug and then leaving again for what felt like days but was probably less than 24 hours. By the time he returned from Aogiri business (she could hear the CCG members fighting and shouting and causing a ruckus as they battled the Aogiri grunts) she was awake, rested, hungry, and free of the RC inhibitor's effects. 

It was so stupidly simple, breaking the steel chains and striking out at the shark-faced man. It was almost too good to be true, finally having the chance to get the sadistic fucker back for all of the agony he put her through, and she gave into Rize for a time, making Jason rain blood and flesh on the floor and shattering his bones. Yamori was continually vacillating between sobbing like a child and calling for his mother, cursing her and promising vengeance, begging her to stop, and counting. Kaneki barely registered this, as she was occupied with tearing his kagune into manageable pieces and gulping them down as fast as she could.

_"What is 1000-7?"_

He tasted _disgusting,_ but any food at all would do in her situation, and cannibalism did have a positive effect on strength and regenerative speed, so Kaneki ignored her taste buds and feasted herself on him, making him count down for every bite she took until he was sobbing and lacking any trace of his Kagune. She plucked his kakuhou from his back and swallowed it down, feeling the rush of fresh RC cells and nutrients replenishing her strength and healing her remaining wounds until she was nearly in peak condition once more. She left him there, deciding that leaving him to be caught and made into a Dove's quinque was the exact punishment he deserved for the horrors he had wrought.

Banjou and his remaining friends were huddled in a cage like animals at the pound, and she felt rage coil in her gut at the memory of Yamori's lies before she shook it away and focused. They stared at her in awe as she told them that she had defeated Jason and left him for dead, and they followed her out of the building without hesitation before splitting from her and heading for the relative safety of the forest. The forest was barren of human and ghoul alike, and they would be safe as long as they stayed there, out of sight and out of mind for any potential enemies.

Kaneki continued through the base, moving quickly and quietly as she did so, and eventually tracked down Ayato's location _(the horrid brat was **eating** Touka, the caring **sister** that raised him and still deeply mourned his decision to leave her)._ She arrived just in time to rescue Nishiki from death and prevent Touka being further victimized at the hands of the arrogant teenager, and then decided that it was time he get a taste of his own medicine. Just because she wouldn't and couldn't kill him _(Touka would never forgive her)_ didn't mean that she couldn't half-kill him, after all.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ayato screamed out in denial like a furious child, swearing and cursing her as she dissected his motivations and laid bare his reason for his attitude towards his older sister. He screamed even louder as she counted out and named each broken bone, holding him in place to prevent him damaging himself unnecessarily in the process. It was a punishment that would hopefully stick and act as a reminder that he wasn't invincible and that Touka deserved honesty and closure from him _('Hypocrite~,' Rize taunted, and wasn't she thinking of leaving herself? But at least she didn't plan to lie and actively hurt her)._

He quieted down until his screams subsided to quiet whimpers and his kicks to little twitches, his kakugan faded back to indigo irises hazy with tears that he tried to hide by turning his head away. Kaneki petted his hair and murmured comforting words as she finished, assuring him that she was done and his punishment was over now. Ayato's eyes fluttered shut, his ragged breaths smoothing out as he fell unconscious from pain and exhaustion, and his finally looked his age. He and Hinami were close in age, she recalled, and with the angry scowl removed he looked much cuter, much more like Touka. She felt a pang of regret that he had chosen this path, but it was time that she rejoin her friends, and so she stood and stretched, turning away to leave.

When Uta and Yomo appeared to fend off Noro, Kaneki collapsed to her knees, ignoring Tsukiyama's coos and seeing little more than Yomo's serious face and solemn eyes as he told her to let go. She had been running on adrenaline and fury, and she was burnt down to nothing from inside out, with the ever-present exhaustion that had dogged her since her capture dragging her down like lead weights on her limbs. She wanted to break down and sob and scream to let out the tormented emotions that still plagued her, but now wasn't the time. She had to hold it together just a little longer, just until she found a safe place to rest.

After Noro abandoned the battle with Ayato slung over his shoulder, she left, taking a separate path from the others to clear her head. The night was still and tense, the sounds of death and destruction still ringing from other buildings as the CCG and Aogiri members fought to exterminate each other without mercy. None of them were close enough to reach her, and she ambled quietly through the shadows and the moonlight, dimly noting the bright shine of her hair where the silver light bathed her newly-white hair in its glow. She sensed eyes on her and turned, spotting a familiar silhouette _(so her memory was right and she did let that inspector live. Good, she wasn't a **murderer** )_ in a blown-out window, and she fell still, caught in the intensity of the unspoken words she could feel in his bearing.

She met the inspector's gaze, staring unblinkingly into his narrowed blue eyes for a long moment with her uncovered eye. She could sense that he wanted her to come closer, and the hostility and rage of their previous encounter was absent, replaced by longing and curiosity _(he probably found her strange for refusing to kill him and wanted to know what she meant by her parting words)._ She gave him a small nod of recognition before turning and sprinting towards the scents of Anteiku. She would like to talk with him and explain, but she needed to leave now while she had the chance.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Leaving Anteiku wasn't an easy decision, but it was necessary. Partly for her own sake and largely for everyone else's sakes, as they deserved to not be dragged into this mess, and returning to them would just draw unwanted attention from Aogiri, who were already too interested in her. She wasn't enthusiastic about Hinami joining, but she promised herself and the Manager that she would keep the girl out of anything too dangerous, and that she would make sure Hinami visited often and kept up her studies.

Touka was another matter. She was far from recovered from her injuries, but she stubbornly stood on her own and tried to plead her case, all but begging to come with her and help in her quest. Kaneki didn't let her, though. Touka was no weakling, but she was nothing against the upper echelon of Aogiri Tree, and she would be noticed and queried about if she vanished from human society, unlike the others who were joining her. She had school and friends and work, and she wasn't registered as a missing person, and as such Kaneki couldn't let her leave her peaceful life behind when she had so much to stay for and so much potential.

The others understood, in a way. They might not approve, but they supported her right to choose her own path and respected that she had her reasons. Irimi gave her a rare smile, resting a hand on her shoulder and telling her to visit when she could before stepping back. Nishio-senpai gave her a long look and sighed, urging her not to be killed ('because Kimi would miss you', he insisted, with the unspoken _'I'd miss you too, idiot'_ hanging in the air as he huffed and looked away with a frown). Yomo and Uta were silent, simply nodding at her and leaving, and the manager left after reminding her to visit and that she was always welcome to return to them if needed. The sentiment alone nearly brought her to tears and strained her facade of silent authoritative strength.

Tsukiyama was going to need firm handling, but compared to Jason he was negligible as a threat. If he attacked her she could dispatch him with almost frightening ease, and if he dared to harm Hinami or anyone else she cared for then she would do so all the more ruthlessly. At least he had money and connections, and he would do almost anything to stay close to her. Knowing how to play him meant he was easy to predict and account for. How he hoped to hide his lust for her flesh she had no idea, because she could tell he was playing the same game as last time—lure in the prey and devour it whole. Unfortunately for him, she'd had enough of being devoured.

With goodbyes and promises exchanged, they left the clearing and the smoking wreckage behind _(had Aogiri planted bombs? The dust clouds from the fallen buildings were enormous)_ , and Kaneki could feel the numbness that had lurked beneath her skin fading with each step towards safety. She started and blinked when Hinami reached for her, and gently grasped the younger girl's hand with a soft smile, twining their fingers together and relishing the look of delight and relief that decorated her pretty face. Her hand was small and delicate, soft and warm in her grasp, and it provided an anchor of reality _(safe, free, warm and whole again)_ that melted away more layers of stress.

The faint light of coming dawn lit the sky as Tsukiyama completed a phone call, and the sun peeked over the horizon in a blanket of pink and gold that washed away the clouds and dyed the snow in shades of pink. A new day had come at last, and she was free again, with a path and a purpose. Aogiri would burn, Kanou would answer for his deeds, her friends would be safe, and she would find her restitution in the ashes left behind.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Perhaps three hours later, Kaneki and her newly-formed group were settled in a brand-new apartment in the Sixth Ward, far from the Twentieth and Eleventh Wards and fairly peaceable. Tsukiyama had pulled out the stops, arranging a limousine and purchasing brand said apartment in less than an hour. It was bare but functional with space for all seven of them (even if he didn't stay there himself, retiring to fancy apartments or the family mansion upon being dismissed). Hinami, Kaneki, and Banjou had bedrooms and the gas mask trio were sleeping on futons and couches in the living room—Jiro had drop kicked Banjou through the doorway when he tried to give her the third bedroom and claimed the biggest futon for her own, settling the issue of "girls get their own rooms and guys tough it out." The flamboyant ghoul already had a shopping trip planned to get better furniture, basic hygiene supplies, and clothing, though he was clearly planning to spend most of the trip's budget on Kaneki and Hinami. It was early morning now, with the daylight inhabitants of the city awake and bustling about their daily lives, and the ghouls had bedded down to rest.

Kaneki stood stark naked in a small and bare bathroom, staring blankly at her reflection in the full-length mirror that hung on the back of the bathroom door. Her wounds were healed, and only faint bruising and the last traces of vanishing scars remained to mark her pale flesh. She was dirty again, coated from head to toe in dust, ash, sweat, blood, shed RC cells, bits of organs and flesh, and other liquids she still hesitated to name in the privacy of her thoughts. She was tired and she ached, but before anything else she needed to cleanse herself thoroughly, to scrub away the physical reminders of her ordeal and feel truly clean again in body and mind.

The shower and bath was small but fully functional, the tub plenty deep and long enough for her to stretch out her legs and an adjustable shower head with six different pressure settings. Kaneki turned up the water until the heat was barely tolerable, steam pouring out in billowing clouds around her, fogging the mirror and the stainless steel of the sink. The basket of (absurdly expensive) bath products was rummaged through absently, and soon she was massaging shampoo through her hair (a ridiculously fancy French product that smelled like weak tea), rolling her eyes at the way Tsukiyama threw away money to get the most expensive indulgences available. She randomly grabbed a bottle of conditioner, and of all things it had "extract of seaweed and pomegranate inside!" Seriously?

A carved jade hairbrush and comb set? Cashmere towels? Black marble flooring and purple wainscoting? Purple silk shower curtains? Donkey's milk and Dead Sea salt soap? She almost wanted to laugh at the way he showed off his wealth (did he think it would lull her into complacency, to be given gifts and exposed to luxuries she had never even heard of before?), but the sound was caught in her throat, and she could feel the tears she had been holding in for hours building up, spilling down with the water from the showerhead.

 _Good God,_ only hours before she had been fighting for her life, caught in a montage of trauma and starvation-induced hallucinations. A part of her had split away from the whole. The strong and cruel persona that had fought with Jason and Ayato was sleeping beneath the surface, though she had been fully aware of 'Shiro's' actions as they occurred. There were times in her childhood where she had experienced similar detachment, her truest self watching while a meeker, less assertive, and quieter persona deflected her aunt's scorn and disdain, and the detachment became wider after Rize's death. After she was twisted into a hybrid beneath the doctor's knives, neither persona could handle the raw ferocity and instinct of her new species, and so she 'split' herself again.

The hallucinatory 'Rize' was another persona, born to represent her strong and seductive ghoul instincts, and 'Shiro' was the result of absorbing her strength and power along with Jason's brutality and her own intelligence. She was an ideal fighter, born to protect and to step into place of her and her weaker self when trouble came to call. And in a way she was easier to handle than 'Rize' had ever been, because 'Shiro' had a rational thought process and wasn't entirely controlled by hunger and violence. 'Shiro' was calmer and logical, perfect for dealing with Tsukiyama and for showing her authority, a perfectly dangerous ghoul to be feared and respected.

Even so, it was her, Kanna, that was currently in control, and the memories of her ordeal were washing over her in waves, making her legs shake and her nails dig into her sides, leaving bloody red crescents that vanished almost instantly. _Fingers and toes and tongues cut free and rotting, pools of blood decorating a black and white floor, the dead faces of a **murdered mother and child,** Jason's hyena laughter, Rize's cruel whispers, Eto's amused gaze and his **bandaged finger skimming bare flesh and GOING INSIDE, the tricKLING WArmTh leFT BEhinD trailing down her legs and STAINING the tattered pants**_...all the sensations and emotions blending together and pulling her under. Kaneki gasped for breath, clutching her head in her hands and curling her toes as she fell to her knees and curled up beneath the cooling water with silent tears flowing down her pale cheeks.

By the time she resurfaced, the water was chilled, and she was shivering from cold. Kaneki absently soaped and rinsed her limbs and washed her face before drying off and padding barefoot into her new bedroom. She determinedly ignored the filthy clothes she had tossed in the trash (she'd burn them when she woke), rummaging through the small dresser and grabbed an oversized button-up and a pair of underwear. She dressed robotically and slid beneath the soft and warm sheets of the most comfortable and expensive bed she had ever seen in her life, and slowly dropped into a deep and dreamless sleep.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Onee-chan, will you read me a story?"

Hinami had the absolute cutest expression she could manage on her face, eyes wide and pleading as she held out a horror novel in front of her. Kaneki blinked, a bit surprised as she noted the time, but conceded with a nod and a warm smile. Hinami's expression switched to brilliant triumph in the time it took her to say "yes," and soon the two of them were curled up on the couch, with Kaneki reading out loud and the other inhabitants of the apartment listening along. Banjou kept flinching at the violent and creepy parts (for a ghoul he had a surprisingly low threshold for horror), while Ichimi and Sante listened with rapt attention and Jiro busied herself trimming her nails. 

Hinami's enthusiastic reactions made it all the better, grinning and jumping up and down at the exciting portions and going still in anticipation during build-up. When the book was finished nearly two hours later, it was late, but she begged to hear another and Kaneki obliged her, fetching a glass of water and cracking open an epic fantasy for Banjou's sake. Jiro perked up and started listening with both ears this time, and soon all of them were immersed in the tale of a traveling miko, a wandering swordsman, and an exorcist's apprentice as they travelled together across Japan in search of a demon that had stolen a sacred scroll.

While Kaneki had been hesitant to bring her along, Hinami singlehandedly brightened the atmosphere and assisted on their missions whenever she could, as she had the sharpest ears and nose of them all. The youngest girl loved the constant companionship, and she always went with Kaneki when she visited Anteiku, so she saw all of the people she cared about on a regular basis. She studied often and devoured all the books she could read, and she started watching talk shows and anime with the rest of them on a regular basis, expanding her knowledge and providing further entertainment to keep her young mind occupied. She was at the happiest Kaneki had ever seen her, and the incidents where the girl woke screaming from nightmares had dropped off abruptly within the first week of their stay in Ward Six.

Hinami may have been sleeping well and having pleasant dreams more often than not, but the same could not be said for Kaneki. Her nightmares usually ended with her sitting up and gasping for breath, but she could calm herself down with a book and a brisk walk if needs be and she almost never screamed out in her sleep. The fatigue was workable, but she had to nap frequently and drink several cups of coffee a day to stay functional. If the others noticed, they didn't mention it, though Kaneki suspected that Hinami knew, as she kept finding Hinami sneaking into bed with her to cuddle in the early hours of the morning.

Six weeks had passed since the Eleventh Ward events with Aogiri, and Kaneki's gang had settled into their new home and made slow but steady progress in their search. She searched out ghouls and humans connected to Aogiri and Kanou, ferreting for news and word of their goals. Sometimes the targets needed to be eliminated or tortured, and Shiro took care of her duties with ease, the rigorous training she did building up her strength and dexterity until she could bend metal with her bare hands and shatter ghoul bones with a single punch. She ate human meat (scavenged or acquired from Anteiku) for a time, but she soon discovered that it was tasting more and more lackluster in her mouth, and the need for strength took precedence. Perhaps it was her taste buds adjusting to her new diet, but soon she ate nothing but ghoul meat and it began to taste less like foul sewage and more sour and salty.

Kaneki regularly visited Anteiku, heading to the Twentieth Ward every Sunday to pick up guilt-free meat (for the others) from Yomo and Yoshimura. Helter Skelter bar and HySy Artmask Studio were also frequent stopping spots, and Kanna internally giggled alongside Kuro while Shiro exchanged information with Itori, both personas amused at the thought that they were acting like secret agents or yakuza members out of an action movie or crime novel. Uta provided new masks for Banjou and Hinami, and he always had interesting insights and stories to tell. He even lent her several books on martial arts that greatly helped her to improve her techniques, and she thanked him with a bottle of Itori's best blood wine and a roll of fresh leather for masks.

"Oh. How thoughtful of you. I'll be sure to use it well," he said, and the next time she visited two new leather masks were hanging on the wall for display.

When they weren't searching out information or fighting, they had little to do but sit around the apartment, and so Kaneki began teaching Banjou how to read with Hinami as her eager assistant, and movie nights became a regular event to keep them from going stir-crazy. She still read for pleasure and when she needed a distraction from nightmares and the mess that was her life, but more and more often she could be found watching videos and reading books on fighting and alternately sparring with Tsukiyama or training Banjou and the trio to build up their power and stamina. Hinami recieved basic training as well, being the only other ghoul with a rinkaku (her koukaku was used less and less effective as a weapon), and her accuracy, speed, defense, and stamina were already showing improvement.

Tsukiyama showed up every few days, sweeping in with a new kind of exotic flower that always delighted dear sweet Hinami and going to spar with Kaneki in the spacious basement. While he was content to provide them all the money they needed, she took to raiding corpses for money, as they weren't using it anyway and most corpses she dealt with belonged to amoral ghouls that probably didn't get their money through legitimate means to begin with. With none of them currently employed, the pilfering meant that they did have another source of income not connected to the erstwhile Gourmet, and the pinched look on his face when he noticed things he knew he hadn't bought was amusing in a petty way that she did a poor job of hiding.

His intentions towards her were much clearer than he probably realized. A week or so into their strange partnership he took her to a posh party (a gathering of rich humans and a few ghouls, an annual banquet that Kanou sometimes attended), and the high-end dress he provided her gave him a chance to not only admire as much bare skin as possible in a formal setting, but the blood red color probably wasn't chosen just to highlight her complexion. At least the ridiculous stiletto heels were painful enough to elicit a yelp when she kicked him; even if the spikes couldn't pierce his flesh, softer areas still bruised nastily if hit correctly, and she took savage delight in leaving "reminders" on him when he stepped out of bounds.

Kaneki snapped back to the present, having been reading on autopilot and allowing her mind to drift for perhaps a half-hour, and the others were either asleep or had wandered off. Hinami was curled up beside her, her head on her shoulder and little sighs escaping her as she dreamed of something pleasant. Banjou was passed out on his stomach, drooling on the floor and looking ridiculous, and the trio were all sitting around half-asleep, blinking slowly and rousing themselves enough to get ready for bed. Banjou and Hinami were tucked away for the night, and soon enough the inhabitants had all settled in peacefully.

Several hours later, Kaneki woke, running to the bathroom and emptying the contents of her stomach violently. She was flushed with heat and her stomach was twisted with knots, kneeling on the cool marble floor and waiting impatiently for the nausea to end. Even with her practice with eating human food and expelling it later on, the taste of vomit was still disgusting and unwanted, and the moment she was finished she rinsed her mouth thoroughly. Strange, she had actually almost enjoyed the flavor of her last meal, perhaps the ghoul had been consuming something foul? She shrugged it off in the end and went on with her day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously things are going to pick up soon. Canon will be derailed pretty thoroughly in this story, so while important events will still be present everthing will be drastically altered by the universe alterations.


	3. Roses and Bones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Valentine's Day comes around, Tsukiyama fails at courting again, and we see a glimpse of the CCG. I threw in flower language stuff because my mother is a florist and TG is full of flower symbolism.

Nine weeks had passed since Aogiri, and Tsukiyama showed up on the morning of Valentine's Day with an enormous bouquet of red and white roses spilling from his arms. Hinami snatched the ribbon tying the bouquet together to use as a headband, and Kaneki smiled at the adorable sight, sitting Hinami in her lap and tying the ribbon into a double bow that rested on the side of her head. The pink satin showed off her new haircut in the best of ways (Kaneki had trimmed her hair into a fluffy pixie cut the day before), and Tsukiyama handed her a pair of white rosebuds to add, praising how adorable the young girl looked and causing her to smile shyly.

Banjou eyed him carefully, but the trio all praised their little princess, and Tsukiyama flicked rose petals in Banjou's face, prompting laughter from all of the others as the delicate pink petals were caught in his hair and beard. His face flushed to match them almost perfectly shade for shade as he sputtered indignantly at Tsukiyama. Kaneki smiled absently at the scene, but her gaze was caught by the white roses in the bouquet, the sight and scent of them reminding her of her mother and of Rize lying down as her blood stained white petals and turned them to spider lilies, the heralds of death.

"Onee-chan, do you like roses?"

Kaneki snapped herself out of her memories, focusing on Hinami as the younger girl frowned, curiously examining the flower gripped in her clenched fist. Tsukiyama was smelling a bright red rose with dramatic flair, but paused and looked at her as well, curious to see what she would answer. Kaneki paused for a long moment, schooling her face into a neutral expression and breathing deeply before she finally answered.

"Yes. My mother worked part-time for a florist shop. White roses were her favorite flower."

"Oh...do you like them too?" Hinami asked, slightly more hesitantly than before. Kaneki smiled at her to show she didn't mind, her eyes half lidded and grey as rainwater as her gaze met Hinami's honey-brown irises. Hinami was adjusting to seeing her with both eyes uncovered, as Kaneki had decided to forgo the eyepatch when in their apartment, and it made her more expressive and at the same time more unearthly, after so long with her ghoul eye hidden.

"Yes. They aren't my favorite, though. I always preferred violets." Kaneki smiled wryly at the inside joke. She remembered that her father had a book of flower language and several books of poetry from around the world, and violets represented modesty, loyalty, nobility, power, resurrection, and love between women. While Kaneki was bisexual rather than a complete lesbian, she had tended to get crushes on other girls much more frequently. She liked the way that violets looked from the first time her mother brought home a bouquet of them, and upon learning of the meaning and coming across poems by Sappho in her father's collection, she became even more enamored by the violet.

"So, do you know what they mean then?" Hinami asked, fully relaxing as she realized that Kaneki was fine with the questioning after all.

"The white rose means innocence, purity, and secrecy. The untainted white color causes them to also be associated with winter," Kaneki explained, purposely not mentioning that the association with winter was also connected to death. How very fitting, that her mindscape had been filled with withering white roses as she lost what was left of her innocence. The red spider lilies that appeared in their place represented death, loss, and rebirth, perfect heralds of the changes in her psyche and the violent birth of Shiro.

"*Un parfait explication, mon trésor," Tsukiyama exclaimed, gesticulating with the rose again and sending loose petals fluttering to the floor. "The most lovely white rose has no parallel in its beauty, *beaucoup tout comme idéal votre visage."

"I don't know what you just said, but yes, it is beautiful. I suppose that it's sad, too, because white things stain very easily," Kaneki muttered, the sight of crimson blood rolling down white petals momentarily teasing her mind's eye. The purest and cleanest things always had the most potential to be tainted.

"I'll be careful with these, then," Hinami cut in, gently cupping the white rosebuds emerging from her hair ribbon.

" _Non,_ I have more where they came from. They are quite lovely but replaceable, Himeko-chan," Tsukiyama assured her, withdrawing a miniature bouquet of rosebuds from inside his sleeve with a dramatic flourish. The Gourmet then handed over an invitation to another party attended by associates of Kanou General Hospital and a box of ghoul 'truffles' (bone marrow, melted fat, and blood paste mixed together, rolled into balls and covered in bone powder and sprinkles of salt from dried teardrops), which Hinami enthusiastically tried with a bright smile.

They descended into more genial antics, Jiro weaving a crown out of roses and sneaking it onto Banjou's head when he was busy blustering at Tsukiyama, much to everyone's amusement. Tsukiyama handed a folder with photographs and notes of potential links and targets to Kaneki, who browsed it and debated internally with Shiro and Kuro about which leads they should follow first. Hinami was determined that they relax and enjoy the holiday, insisting that Kaneki relax and enjoy herself for a day rather than wearing herself out with a new mission so soon.

In the end was decided that Kaneki and Hinami would take a few hours to go about town and visit a local coffee shop, while Banjou and the trio would occupy themselves with the television—several romantic comedies were due to play and Banjou was weak to them—while Jiro (who was tasked with keeping the men from making a mess) was set to settle in with newspapers and search for worthwhile information in the printed press. Tsukiyama offered to accompany Hinami and Kaneki, but Shiro emerged and rebuffed him, so he left after bestowing a kiss to her hand and leaving the roses sitting in a glass vase on the kitchen table.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Hello! Yurika-chan, and little Hinako-chan too! How have you been lately, dears?"

Kaneki and Hinami went by different names here for safety, and their altered appearances helped to hide their true identities from scrutinizing gazes. Tusukiyama had helped immensely in setting up their false identities, even providing backups that they could use with wigs or hair dye. Mrs. Inoue Sachiko, the friendly owner of a cozy local book café and bakery, knew them as Suzuki Yurika and Hinako, a pair of polite young customers that came to visit once a week on Wednesday afternoons. She was under the impression that they were adoptive siblings that evacuated from Ward 11 shortly after the loss of "Hinako's" parents to ghoul-related violence, a view that they actively encouraged.

"Yurika" was "Hinako's" paternal cousin, with their father being brothers. After the unfortunate deaths of her father and mother by car accident, she became closer to "Hinako's" side of her family because her mother's sister, who had legal guardianship, grew interested in the contents of her trust fund. "Yurika" was taking a year off from university to handle the aftermath of the deaths and to care for "Hinako." The elder girl worked as a tutor, a taekwondo teaching assistant, and a part-time model (for a photographer friend of Tsukiyama's), while "Hinako" was taking advanced classes online and helping her adoptive sister.

"Hinako" suffered from a lung disease that made her extremely sensitive to pollutants, which was used to explain the medical masks she frequently wore in public to blend in as a teenager and disguise her features in case they ran into Doves. Hinami was good at faking a cough, and if the situation called for it she would unobtrusively bite herself to add flecks of blood that were carefully caught by a handkerchief. Her 'ailment' had resulted in her being homeschooled from a young age, and "Yurika" had helped to teach her over the years.

Kaneki had chosen to stretch the truth rather than entirely foregoing it, and the "missing" status of the real Ward Eleven girls whose identities they were borrowing (confirmed as dead and devoured by a friend of Tsukiyama's) made it all the easier. The actual Suzuki family died and were consumed when they took a trip too close to Aogiri's former base—what had been intended as a birthday party (for their grandmother) turned impromptu family gathering went horribly wrong, with all humans aboard the train they took being spirited off as food. Their friends and other relatives were either distant or dead from the selfsame highjacked train incident. One small hack job to change photos and alter a few details on birth records and such cemented their false identities, and the ID cards they carried were legally legitimate.

The Taekwondo connection was to explain her reading the martial arts books she carried around, and she was teaching the other members of her group how to fight as well as tutoring them in reading, writing, and math. It was also true that the one time she met Chie in person, the odd woman had asked her to model for a few photographs, though they were far from the sort of pictures one would see in a fashion magazine. She portrayed herself (truthfully) as a protective surrogate sister and guardian to Hina, and her obvious diligence towards her beloved charge caused the kind old woman to be very sympathetic and motherly towards them both. 

Mrs. Inoue hadn't been told the full backstory, no one had outside of their group, as the extended one was for emergencies and to add details if they were questioned, but they told her enough of the basic facts to satisfy her curiosity and have her see them as the "nice respectable girls with family troubles." She always recommended interesting new books for Hinami to read, and she would give them complimentary cookies some days with a wink and a smile. Kaneki excused herself from eating them by saying she was on a diet, and Hinami would usually "save them for later," though the first time she gave them cookies they "ate" them to please her.

The old woman seemed to be under the impression that Tsukiyama (alias Hanagami) was madly in love with Kaneki, much to said girl's embarrassment. Thankfully Mrs. Inoue had never met him in person, but Hinami told her about Tsukiyama, who she called "flower man," taking Kaneki to a fancy party and frequently giving her presents, and the human woman clearly found the situation amusing. Every time they came in she would find time to ask for updates on their exploits from Hinami, tease Kaneki about how lucky she was, and encourage the girl to give him a chance. Gods save her from matchmaking old grandmothers.

"Did Hanagami-kun visit again?" And there was the inevitable question, Kanna thought, rolling her eyes slightly and sighing under her breath. Shiro and Kuro both internally gave suggestions on how to respond, but Hinami beat them to it, preventing a "polite but neutral" or a "sardonic and subtly insulting (towards the ghoul in question)" response from being given. The developing frown on her face receded she and returned to her coffee, knowing that Hinami had learned how to be friendly while still hiding potentially incriminating information.

"Yes, flower man came over today with roses and truffles!" Hinami licked her lips at the memory, sad that the truffles were gone. Mrs. Inoue looked like the cat that got the canary, slying winking at the oblivious Kanna as the girl sipped her black coffee.

"Such a devoted boy he is, stopping in to see his dearie and her lovely sister on Valentine's Day. And with flowers and chocolates, too! You should give him something nice for White Day when it comes, Yurika-chan." Mrs. Inoue was practically cooing at the thought of "young love." With her husband dead and two grown grandchildren, the older woman lived vicariously through her grandchildren and customers, and she had a stack of life advice and romantic advice to give to anyone she felt was in need of her (admittedly real) expertise.

"It wasn't for me, Inoue-san. I'm allergic to chocolate, so even if they were I couldn't eat them."

"It was very nice of him, though," Hinami interjected, giving Mrs. Inoue a conspiratorial look as Kaneki sighed and conceded the point.

"Ah, if only my grandson would take a leaf from his book. That boy hasn't had a girlfriend in years, though he may have had the beginning of a relationship with his classmate and co-worker. She sounds like a lovely young woman, but he argues with her like a child instead of manning up and asking her out," Mrs. Inoue bemoaned, clucking her tongue as she looked fondly at a picture of said grandson where it sat on the counter. The picture showed a pair of energetic brunet siblings playing football together with a slightly younger Mrs. Inoue cheering them on in the background.

"I wouldn't recommend that your grandson emulate him, he and I have a very...complicated history. I'm busy enough anyway, and my last relationship ended badly." That was putting it mildly, considering that Rize tried to eat her and then vanished after unwillingly donating her kakuhou. Officially speaking, Tsukiyana was on a date with her that day when they went out for coffee and a squash game, and she had been starting to consider his potential as a romantic partner before the disaster at the restaurant. His flirting, subtle or not, just gave her bad memories now—fancy French dessert compared to a one-eyed beauty? If she _was_ the dessert, then that made all the more sense after the fact.

"You're such a darling girl, Yurika-chan. A sweet young woman like you deserves someone special." Rather than correcting her, Kaneki put on a display of flattered embarrassment, even if the real reason she found romance to be unwanted was because of her horrible track record for judging her potential dates. Was it her fate to only be interesting to people that wanted to eat her or torment her? The memories of bloody pliers and a bandaged face flashed in her mind and she had to suppress a shudder. "And so modest, too."

Kaneki ducked her head demurely, allowing a light flush to dust her cheeks as she pouted a bit for effect, looking up momentarily through her bangs and flicking her gaze back to her coffee after seeing the foxlike expression on Mrs. Inoue's face. The old woman clucked at her, clearly finding her shyness on the subject of romance to be endearing. Kuro was notably quiet, disapproval emanating from her, and Shiro was annoyed at the idea of stopping their quest for the sake of seeking out a partner, and she was thankful that her acting skills were as good as they were. 

Kaneki's pretty, youthful looks were often helpful to her needs, as her gentle bearing, slender build, and delicate beauty caused others to underestimate her and trust her more easily. Kuro disliked manipulating others, but Shiro thought nothing nothing of it and Kanna was content to use her appearance in such a way as long as the "suckering" of humans and ghouls alike provided safety for her loved ones and helped her in her quest. All her life she had frequently hidden her face with her bangs, looking down demurely and avoiding curious gazes, but now when she did so it was part of a calculated effort to get the right reaction from a helpful person enamored by her shyness.

Her short cropped hair had grown out into a fluffy bob over the past month, and without Hide there to cut it for her (it was their tradition to cut each other's hair to save costs and to have a comforting moment every few weeks) she left it as it was, clipping or tying it back when it got irritating. The stark color contrasted against her pitch black nails, and the expensive clothing Tsukiyama provided her drew even more attention to her coloring, alternately emphasizing or concealing the wiry muscles of her limbs and showing the slim length of her body.

Kaneki threw aside anything embarrassing (the lacy black corset he snuck into her closet was promptly returned to the store), but the clothes she wore were all functional. With the weather getting steadily warmer, she took to wearing backless leotards under her clothing when her battle suit was not an option, to allow maneuverability and to prevent her kagune from destroying clothes unnecessarily. She took a liking to the convenience of leotards, even wearing them with shorts during spars and other physical exercises.

The memories of the ridiculous corset and the fight she had with Tsukiyama over the battlesuit's initial designs were more than a little irritating, and Kanna forced herself to pause for a deep breath and keep drinking her coffee. There was no use in getting irritated with the Gourmet when she had good coffee and books available, and she might as well attempt to relax for a short time. Hinami was reading a book and humming the opening theme of a popular horror anime under her breath, and Mrs. Inoue had wandered away to the register to ring up more customers now that the lunch rush was starting. The cafe was cozy and quiet, with several humans scattered about reading or purchasing food and drinks at the counter, and no one here was much of a potential threat.

Kaneki finished her coffee and enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere for a time, daydreaming absently about nothing in particular and thumbing through a recently released murder mystery. An hour later, Hinami finished her book with a happy sigh, and it was time for the two of them to leave. The ghoul duo left with a wave to the cheery owner, brushing past a brown-haired young man in a suit as they left, and soon they were headed off to their apartment again to relax a bit more before heading off on a night mission.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Seidou! My sweet little grandson, how nice of you to drop by," Mrs. Inoue exclaimed, "and is that your partner with you? Invite him in, won't you? 

Takizawa Seidou smiled at his grandmother, and his senior partner's serious face became the slightest bit softer as he stood behind him. His grandmother was a kind and energetic old woman, and while he didn't stop in to see her as often as he would like to, she wasn't the type to break out baby pictures and embarrass him in front of his senior, unlike his mother. 

"I just stopped in to see you because Houji-San wanted to meet you, and you make the best cookies in Tokyo, Obaa-san."

"You little flatterer, you just want free samples," she scolded, ruining the effect when she got out a box and started putting in cookies from a wire rack. "I have a batch of cookies fresh out of the oven, I can spare a few for two hard-working investigators like you." She began selecting pastries from the cooling racks off to the side, and soon Seidou was hearing bits and pieces about her favorite customers as she packed up the box with all sorts of baked treats.

"Those sweet young girls from Ward Eleven were in here today. Poor dears, losing their home to those horrible ghouls. I'm sure they'd love to meet you, victims like them most likely support the CCG wholeheartedly for clearing up that infestation."

"Oh? I'm sure they do. Tragedies like that are what we work to prevent."

"What kinds of cookies do you have for us today?" Houji interjected, speaking up for the first time. The old woman flashed her ever-present warm smile at him in response.

"I have several kinds, I made a new flavor combination this morning—butterscotch and brown sugar. Oh, and I made your favorite, Seidou, chocolate chip and oatmeal! I'll give you plenty, you're looking underweight," she commented, frowning a bit as she reached over to pinch his cheek. Seidou backed away, waving his arms and insisting he was fine, and a few customers looked over and laughed or rolled their eyes at the sight before going back to reading. After a minute or so he finally managed to convince her that he was fine and he and his partner would eat all the cookies, and Mrs. Inoue went back to filling up the box, commenting on how dutiful and generous he was with an indulgent smile.

"We'll be out for a while, we're tracking a potential ghoul and we're on stakeout duty tonight," Seidou said, accepting the box—stuffed with five kinds of cookies—from his grandmother and forking over a few thousand yen into the tip jar when she wasn't looking. Houji had already stepped outside to take a phone call from Shinohara, and so his partner didn't have to witness his grandmother ruffling his hair with a liver-spotted hand.

"Seidou-kun, promise to stay safe, you hear me? The last thing a grandparent needs is to die after their grandchildren."

"We will, there's no need to worry. Houji-San is very experienced and a good teacher, with him there we can handle anything that Gourmet might try," he assured her, then rushed out of the shop to where his partner was standing at the bus stop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Gourmet investigation, Ghoul restaurant, and Aogiri Tree will all make appearances next time. The timeline will be shortened a bit, but not too much. Do you all mind the OC? She's not a big part of stuff, just a connection to add in a bit of drama later on.
> 
> *A perfect explanation, my treasure.
> 
> *Much like your lovely visage.


	4. Convocation and commiseration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I nearly ended up splitting this chapter from one into two because of the length, just warning you all.
> 
> Here we see Shiro doing what she does best, a bit of how she's still affected by the rape, a glimpse into Aogiri Tree, and Tsukiyama's thoughts on his situation. 
> 
> Being French myself, I couldn't resist having Tsukiyama use a lot of little phrases and words, but the gist of his meaning should be easy enough to catch, and the explanations are at the end if you want them.

In the back of a club in Ward 13, Shiro sat at the bar, casually sipping a glass of watered-down blood wine as she eyed tonight's current target where he sat across the room with a drunken human girl in his lap. Tachibana Yusuke, alias "Eel," was a bikaku ghoul with an A ranking, in his mid-forties and not a fighter so much as he was an escape artist with a reputation for being a smooth talker with excellent evasion and escape skills. He was also an infamously insufferable womanizer who chased skirts indiscriminately, bedding human women and female ghouls that he met in seedy bars and clubs like this one.

It was a lesser-known fact about him that led him to be their latest target—Tachibana was an informant that was working with Aogiri Tree, feeding them information, helping arrange contracts with wealthy ghouls for funding, and negotiating arms deals with yakuza members. Most of the prized few ex-military ghouls in Aogiri's ranks were connected to him, as he had a (long dead) younger brother in the military once upon a time. And this was his domain, this illegal club located in a former underground bomb shelter, filled with humans and ghouls in varying states of drunkeness.

She was a bit disgusted at having to do this, but she wasn't pushing the task of flirting with a drunken old man on Jiro, who was stronger than Banjou but definitely a B rank at best, if not a C rank. For all her cruelty and deadly purpose, she was intended first and foremost as a protector. The little wine that she had been able to drink sat heavy in her stomach, though she mostly just swished it in her mouth to ensure her breath smelled heavily of the stuff. Shiro was flushed from the heat of the room, and she purposely stumbled as she stood and joined the dancers on the floor. She had to smack a few annoying men that attempted to grab at her, but played it off as her being an irritable drunk, which made most of them lose interest.

After fifteen minutes of "dancing" she saw Eel send off the young girl from the corner of her eye, and she purposely stepped into her path so that she would stumble into her, letting herself fall to the floor in a tangle of limbs perhaps five feet from where the ghoul was seated. The long hair of her black wig curtained her face as she slowly sat up on her knees, swaying with "drunken disorientation," and the human girl fled, not even stopping to apologize for knocking her down. As she planted a hand on the floor and pulled her feet under her, an outstretched hand appeared in her line of vision, and there stood the Eel himself, a carefully apologetic smile on his face and appropriately concerned eyes.

"Sorry about her, sweetheart. Let me help you up." His rough purr of a voice had nothing on Tsukiyama in terms of suave charm, and as soon as he deduced that she was a pretty and "highly intoxicated" young ghoul his brown eyes sparked with carnal interest. Ugh. He definitely was a creepy pervert, and she had to keep firm control of herself to keep from punching him when his eyes lingered on the place where her pale bare thigh emerged from the slit in the skirt of her figure-hugging black dress.

"Th-thank you, sir." Shiro was careful to stutter and slur her words slightly, allowing the force of his pull to make her stumble into his arms with a gasp. "I-I-I'm sorry," she apologized, ducking her head and letting her half-lidded eyes examine the floor as she took a small step back, swaying heavily in place. Eel held onto her arm to keep her from stumbling again, and then pulled her to sit beside him, assuring her in his gravelly voice that he didn't mind a bit and he was sorry for the trouble that made her fall down in the first place. He offered her a glass of bloodwine with a wink, and she let her hands shake as she took a tentative sip.

She wanted to vomit. Human anything tasted fouler than foul to her now, and it was driving her crazy, the scent of human blood making her violently nauseous when it had once driven her half mad with hunger. Kanna was grateful in a way that she no longer was consuming human meat, but she was a technically a cannibal whether she ate human or ghoul meat due to her half-breed nature. Shiro just wanted to get it over with, and so she let her eyes flutter shut as she downed the contents of the glass in one gulp.

"What's a pretty girl like you doing in a shithole like this, sweetheart?" He asked her in what was meant to be friendly interest, but the look in his eyes wasn't that kind of friendly by a long shot.

"M' boyfriend dumped me for some stuuupid little _human_ girl and I wanted to forget the jerk for a wh-while." Shiro wasn't drunk on one and an eighth of a glass of bloodwine, but Eel didn't know that, and she swayed in her seat until she fell against the male ghoul, who reeked more and more of excitement and lust as their conversation continued. _Disgusting._

"Must be a real ungrateful bastard, leaving a gorgeous thing like you all alone, and all for a future meal, too? Doesn't sound like he's worth a second thought, beautiful."

"He's a stupid bastard, but I'm dooone with _him._ I just wanna have fun and enjoy my night."

"Perfectly understandable," he said, gently rubbing circles on her hip and doing his best to seem sympathetic. "I'm all alone myself, would you mind keeping a lonely man company?"

Shiro blinked slowly, outwardly having trouble processing Eel's words, but internally she smirked, knowing that he was playing right into her hands like a fool. _'That was fast,'_ Kanna commented, and Kuro murmured an agreement as well before burying her head in the sand again to slough off the discomfort of the situation.

"S-sure. I can't dance anymore, the room keeps spinning when I stand up..." She moaned, pouting a bit and laying back against the cool wood of the booth. He patted her shoulder in sympathy, stroking through the fine hair of her wig and baring more pale skin for his hungry eyes to examine.

"Poor thing, that atmosphere is really something. Sit with me and rest for a while, sweetheart."

 _'I'm not your sweet anything, you disgusting pervert.'_ The words were on the tip of her tongue, and she congratulated herself for holding them in and smiling dazedly at him instead. He had fallen for the act hook, line, and sinker, and she was a bit amused that it was so very easy. For an information broker he really was too weak to the temptation of feminine beauty for his own good.

They made small talk for half an hour, and she sipped at a fresh glass of bloodwine without actually drinking much before putting it aside, complaining that her head was spinning. Eel was oozing false sympathy and turning up the charm, and he couldn't keep his hands to himself, though he had yet to touch her anywhere but her arms and sides or attempt to grope her. She was thankful that he hadn't because she really wasn't enjoying this at all, and she could feel Banjou and Tsukiyama looking on with assessing eyes, and if he tried anything she wasn't certain that they would stay where they were seated.

It was nearly two in the morning now, and the club was more crowded than before, with almost everyone drunk and more than a few occupants stripping off articles of clothing until they were barely clad in anything at all. The heat was getting to her and her stomach ached ferociously, nausea rising as the smell of sweat, lust, alcohol, and blood mixed together and surrounded her from every direction like a pervasive miasma. Eel was definitely drunk, and the two unobtrusive bodyguards were looking bored, one of them eyeing the half-naked women in the crowd and the other yawning and checking his watch every few minutes.

Finally Eel stood, pulling her with him and signaling to the guards that he had chosen his partner for tonight. She giggled at a terrible joke he told her and stumbled on her strappy stilettos as they left, and then they were out of the damned club at long last. The polluted city air had never smelled so sweet to her nose, and she breathed a sigh of relief, wiping at her forehead and leaning against the ghoul as they walked slowly down a back alley.

Now that they were out of the public eye he was even more handsy, leading her by the elbow and keeping her less than ten centimeters from his body at all times. She "mock protested" when he leaned in to smell her throat, though she itched to slam him into a wall and wring his neck. He began a steady stream of dirty talk as they approached a car that was parked at the end of the alleyway, and Shiro revisited the taste of her last meal from the sheer revulsion she felt at hearing his absurd and obscene "banter."

"Pretty little thing, aren't you? I love cute little girls like you, especially when you're spread out under me and begging for me to fuck you raw. You want me to spread you open with my nice big cock, gorgeous? Want me to pound you into the mattress until you scream my name for the whole ward to hear?" Euck, she was done, the next time he opened his mouth she was going to slam the fucker down and break his fingers.

Eel pulled her against him again, rubbing the small of her back with a calloused hand and making her gasp out loud as he brushed over her kakuhou. That same molten pleasure she had felt once before in her life washed over her, and her head fell back as she whimpered at the sensation. The man's eyes widened comically as he processed the reaction, and he smiled a shark-like grin when he put the pieces together.

"A rinkaku type, are you? How unusual. I've never fucked a rinkaku girl before, but I've heard that rinkaku types have _excellent_ stamina, and your kagune can make for a damn good show." He licked his lips, eyeing her hungrily and curling his arm firmly around her waist as he rubbed her kakuhou again, earning a high-pitched mewl in response. "Sensitive and responsive, too. This will be real fun tonight."

Shiro heard mocking falsetto laughter in the back of her mind, followed by the words that preceded Eto's violation of her— _"You're much more interesting than I expected. How delightful."_ This time, she wasn't the weak one, and she snapped out a kick with bone crushing force, bringing Eel to the ground and quickly gagging him with the scarf that had been acting as a "headband" to keep the bangs of her wig out of her face, muffling his pained scream. Tsukiyama and Banjou emerged from the shadows and dispatched the two bodyguards before they had time to try anything, and soon they were a few streets over in the basement of an office building that was closed for the weekend.

The large flashlight that Banjou had stored in his pocket was set down and lit, pointing at the ceiling to reflect the illumination and provide dim lighting in the grungy room. Eel stared at her with panicked eyes, realizing that the oh-so-agreeable young woman he'd been hoping to take home had very different plans and was not drunk after all. Banjou left to join the trio standing guard outside, leaving Tsukiyama to stand by the door and watch over the proceedings. Kaneki roughly yanked off the makeshift gag and roughly tossed the middle-aged ghoul to the ground.

"Who the fuck are you, you little bitch?" Eel grunted, squinting at her and trying to stand. Shiro stared at him impassively, her eyes both uncovered for once and still human-grey.

"None of your business. What do you know about Aogiri Tree?"

He blinked, clearly not expecting her to be so coldly calm. "The fuck? They're a crazy terrorist group that keep tangling with the doves and raising hell." A bead of sweat ran down his neck and he flicked his eyes from her to Tsukiyama and back, the clear nervousness he felt contrasting his angry and confused expression. She stepped forward, still blank-faced, and backhanded him to the floor.

"Not good enough. You sell them supplies every other week and help them contract out services to get money and recognition. Where are they?" She gripped his chin and stared into his eyes, her face cold as ice and hard as steel. This time she'd break a bone if he lied.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Sure, I met a few of their members, and I know a few ghouls that joined up, but I'm not dumb enough to join an army." She whipped out her hand faster than he could follow with his eyes and broke his index finger, making his howl and lash out at her.

"You may not have joined them, but you're getting plenty of money and recognition from your dealings with them. Try to lie to me again and I'll break your arm."

"Fuck you—ACK!" Whoops, there went two more fingers. He panted and stared up at her, twitching in place and clutching his injured hand to his chest.

"Where are their headquarters?" She kept a cold but almost conversational tone, not moving her gaze from him for even an instant as she kept track of his body language.

"I don't know. Really, I don't have a clue." He insisted, and she smiled at him. It wasn't a soft or gentle smile, but rather a smile that promised pain as the price for disobedience, and he froze beneath her stare like a rabbit under the eyes of a hungry fox. "I've never been there before!" He shouted, on the verge of panic as he sensed the ripple of her kagune getting ready to release from beneath her skin.

They played the same dance for nearly an hour, and after he went silent for a minute and refused to respond any further, she stabbed him in the thigh with her kagune. He became much more compliant after that, as giving up information would let him live, or so he thought. It was heading towards 4 AM by the time he had nothing more to give (Tsukiyama was recording the entire thing on his phone), and then she killed him quickly, snapping his neck with her bare hands before ripping open his rib cage and stuffing herself on his innards.

He tasted sour and a bit bitter on her tongue, something like what she thought the flavor of green apples was when she was still human. Shiro devoured his corpse with the ferocity of a starving tiger, hollowing out his torso and leaving nothing but blood and scraps behind as she stood to wipe her mouth. Tsukiyama handed her a fresh outfit and politely left while she changed into clean clothing, calling the others out of their hiding places. The group left the Thirteenth Ward immediately, tossing the body in a back alleyway before taking a roundabout route back to the safety of Ward Six.

The flashback of the incident with Eto was unwelcome, and the unwanted touching of her kakuhou had forcibly pulled it from where it had been firmly buried in the back of her memory. She shivered slightly as they exited from the train, and Banjou quickly handed her a fresh coat, under the impression that she was cold. She was rather chilled, but the last thing she wanted was for him to know the real reason. He would blame himself for what happened to her, even though there was nothing he could have done to help her, and she would rather no one know.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

In an abandoned and partially flooded shopping mall, hundreds of ghouls were milling about, some sleeping, others eating, and yet others squabbling over this and that. The current headquarters of Aogiri Tree were in the middle of a derelict neighborhood filled with abandoned and rotting or leveled buildings, inhabitants that were some combination of homeless and impoverished, and soaring crime rates that went disregarded by uncaring authorities. Humans and ghouls alike fought on a constant basis here, sometimes species against species and other times gang against gang. It was a hellhole of a slum with many bitter and hardened inhabitants, perfect for the militant group to hole up, hunt, and recruit in.

On the fifth and highest floor of the building, the most powerful members of Aogiri Tree were in the midst of holding court. Ayato and Naki sat on opposite ends of a battered couch, with Ayato sprawled over the armrest and scowling while Naki snuffled loudly as he wiped snot and tears from his face. Shachi stood silent and still beside the staircase, as stoic as always, and a pair of newcomers were sitting on a scavenged bench, a woman wearing a helm and a man holding a fox mask in his lap. In the center of the room, Tatara, Eto, and Noro sat on different levels of a dried-out fountain, the former two looking down on the other members with cold and calculating eyes.

They had just received a report from an underling that Eel was found dead in the alley outside his favorite haunt, and that his corpse showed signs of cannibalism, with the scents of Eyepatch and the Gourmet lingering in the alleyway as markers of who had killed and eaten him. The moment that the identifier of "Eyepatch" was uttered, Ayato, Naki, and Shachi all snapped to attention, though for vastly different reasons. Eto had ceased swinging his legs, sitting up straight and staring at the messenger with piercing interest. The nervous ghoul had very nearly fled the room under the weight of their stares, and he bolted down the stairs the moment he was dismissed, clearly using his ukaku speed in his need to find safety.

"If we just killed the Eyepatch Bitch when we had her, then one of our most valuable contacts wouldn't be spread all over an alleyway with her scent clinging to his rotting carcass like stink on shit," Ayato growled, kakugan flashing. Naki sniffed loudly and glared at the floor with watery eyes, and Shachi frowned harshly, clearly disapproving of the fact that Eyepatch had turned cannibal. The newbies muttered to themselves, clearly unsettled, and Tatara's eyes narrowed in irritation, a low growl building in his chest.

"Enough. Jason is to blame for that, the reckless idiot was too caught up in torturing her to pay attention to anything else and paid the price." Tatara's voice was deathly cold, and the newbies shuddered where they sat, eyeing him carefully and edging back in a submissive display. Naki buried his face in his handkerchief and started sobbing again as the loss of his "big brother" was referenced, and Ayato glared venomously at the floor

"We haven't had much luck locating Kanou so far." The helmeted newcomer stated, sitting to attention as she spoke her piece. Eto focused his unnervingly unwavering stare on her now, leaving behind the thoughts he had previously been entertaining, and she quickly continued. "He's gone to ground somewhere, probably to avoid the Doves and possibly us as well." The woman sat back slightly, waiting for her comrades to respond. It was a good minute before the ghoul at her side finally spoke up, his voice deep and gravelly as a truck moving over an unpaved mountain road.

"The restaurant might be a clue, I heard a rumor that one of the members has been seen with a pair of bodyguards that don't smell like either humans or ghouls."

"Shachi will make a grab for her as soon as possible, with Ayato and Naki as backup. Eyepatch has been running with the Gourmet, and he practically owns the place.You all want to get her, right? Here's your chance." Eto's declaration was met with a series of nods, and soon after plans had been finalized they dispersed to their private haunts and personal activities. Soon only Eto was left, sitting in the dry fountain and as still as a statue himself as he sat in silent darkness. "Soon."  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tsukiyama Shuu was an epicurean man, _*un bel esprit_ , delighting in the very finest things in life. He drank the very best bloodwine, richly-brewed coffee, and imported mineral water free of unpleasant pollutants. He ate ate only the most exotic and delightful food available, often hand-picked and hunted down in person. He used the best health and beauty products on the market and wore elegant clothes straight out of a haute couture designer's sketchbook (often personally designed for him and always tailored to his exact measurements). He owned several spacious apartments and houses with the most fashionable furnishings, listened to high-class music, collected beautiful artwork, and surrounded himself with interesting, wealthy, and tasteful people. 

All in all, he lived a sophisticated and enviable life of comfort and security, practically unheard of in the world of ghouls. He had ready access to whatever he wanted with a phone call or a snap of his fingers, and a handsome smile and a few carefully selected words were all it had ever taken for men and women alike to fall for him, whether they be ghouls or humans. But for all his charm and taste, even the best gifts and tokens his money could buy, he still couldn't gain the trust of his most desired prey, his _*raison d'être_ , the woman who haunted and taunted him with her very existence day and night.

Kaneki Kanna was a rare and unparalleled delight that frustrated him and intrigued him in equal measure. She had begun as an ingènue and transformed under the pressure of pain and strife into a femme fatale most extraordinary. She was an intelligent and well mannered young woman, with incredible intellect and excellent taste in books and poetry. She was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about learning new things, and she clearly excelled at teaching what she knew to her students in their ragtag band. Kanna's scent was enough to drive him to _*l'appel du vide_ , an entirely unique aroma perfectly balanced between the sharp and spicy musk of a female alpha ghoul and the softer honey-sweet aroma of a young human woman just breaking the cusp of adulthood. Her body was slim and petite, with subtle curves, a soft and delicate neck, smooth porcelain skin, and long slender limbs with dainty hands and feet.

Her face was as perfect as a painting of an angel: her large and wide doe eyes were a pale grey like moonlight through a wispy cloud, the lashes that framed those lovely eyes were long and starkly pale beneath equally white and softly arched brows, her petal-pink lips formed a perfect cupid's bow beneath an upturned button nose, and her cheeks had the perfect balance of cheekbones and baby fat to retain a youthful softness and show her burgeoning maturity. Kanna's breathtaking visage was curtained by feather-soft hair as white as newly fallen snow that he longed to card his fingers through, though the girl would probably break his hand or roundhouse kick him through a wall if he tried to do so.

Kanna had a soft alto voice, a polite and cultured manner speaking (though she could swear quite inventively given incentive), and a patient, gentle bearing. Well, she was usually gentle and sweet to others, but cool and commanding towards him, knowing that she was strong and not trusting him to obey without the subtle threat of death or severe injury by her lovely hands. As of late her ghoul side was more prominent than ever before, lurking in wait for a threat or challenge and staring danger down with cold and bloodthirsty eyes. It reminded him of a snow leopard he had seen once—soft and fluffy and as adorable as it was beautiful, yet strength and deadly purpose lurked beneath the cream and silver fur, the wide blue eyes belonging to a deadly predator capable of shredding prey and enemies to bloody ribbons without remorse beneath long sheathed claws.

Kanna was not fashionable, devoted only what interest was necessary to keep her appearance neat, maintained careful but not perfect health, and was not choosy with her meals. She was content to scavenge human corpses for her food rather than hunting and killing, though lately it seemed she had taken to preying on ghoul targets instead of consuming human meat, an interesting yet slightly worrisome choice. She chose to wear simple boring clothes for the sake of functionality, never wore makeup without there being a mission that called for it (such as the partyhe had taken her two months ago), and refused to style her hair, settling for pulling it back when needed and leaving it to air-dry instead of adding products to tame and shape it. She even wore the same articles of clothing more than once in a week, though she washed all of them and changed up her outfits so that she wasn't wearing the same exact outfits.

Despite his many attempts to get into her good graces again, Kanna rejected every apology and tossed aside many expensive gifts without a care, such as the authentic lace and bone corset from Paris she had refused to touch and the solid gold earrings from West Africa she had left in the box they arrived in. Unlike him, a simple lifestyle was enough for her to be content, and it made him want to sweep her off her feet and shower her with every possible extravagance money could buy, to show her how being pampered was so much more comfortable than settling for common utilitarian things. She would most likely snap his neck if he tried to treat her in such a way, but the thought of having her petite form nestled in his hold was still tempting.

Tsukiyama did want to eat her still, the scent of her skin and her blood regularly rousing a gnawing hunger in his gut. But despite the fantasies and memories of the flavor of her bittersweet blood he felt other urges, some just as carnal and many others without a trace of hunger or passion involved. He still had trouble sorting out what he wanted, but he knew that her death would leave him aching and empty, that losing her to his own hunger would leave him as bereft in the soul and heart as his stomach was full. When the disgusting man known as Eel had _dared_ to touch her kakuhou and hold her in his arms, he had wanted nothing more than to tear the ghoul to bloody pieces, and he knew that what he had experienced was jealous rage when he calmed down as Kaneki dismantled the man with elegant brutality.

He wanted to dance with her and feel her warmth through fine fabric as he dipped her back like a grinning rogue in a movie, to amiably banter with her and observe her flushed cheeks and teasing smile, to lie her down and explore the texture and taste of her bared flesh with his tongue and fingers alone, to hold her in his arms and fall asleep while curled together on the softest of mattresses, to battle her and have her give him a bloody victorious grin as she straddled his spent body where it lay on the ground, to sit side by side and read in peace on a slow afternoon. These conflicting desires tugged at his mind and heart and stomach until he had trouble differentiating between the kinds of hunger he felt for her—for her flesh, for her body, for her conversations, for her acknowledgement, and for her simple companionship.

Kaneki Kanna was not what he had expected, but he did not wish her to be different, for she was a Goddess come to her earth and he worshipped her in the glow of her supreme glory. Perhaps he was a fool, but then again it was said that fools lived the happiest of lives. If he could only have her and be hers in turn, he would gladly take the title of an intrepid fool, for he would be the happiest and most satisfied of fools the world had ever known. _*Un cherchez la femme_ may not have been his style before, but he was determined to make amends for his faux pas and show that his gaffe would not define the path of their future liaison.

He had tried flowers, fine foods and wine, exotic and expensive gifts, a romantic dance at a classy party, and all the books and clothing and necessities she would accept. What she did take was only a fraction of what he offered and it was reluctant at best, which would not do. Tsukiyama Shuu needed a way to break through her _*froideur,_ to prove his intentions to her before the girl slipped out of his reach and out of his life, and it seemed that the only way to remain at even an impasse was to continually provide her with information and to treat her loved ones with respect, even with the _*déclassé_ status of her elder companions. 

Little Fueguchi Hinami seemed to support him where the others didn't, and he was admittedly growing fond of the young girl. The young ghoul was an ingénue most fair, intelligent, sweet-tempered, and a bit naive, and ever so happy to have so many friends and surrogate family members in reach. The little princess was the best gateway he had to the heart of the Queen, and it was high time he asked for her help. What better person to convince of his intentions than the beloved ward of his _*chère mademoiselle?_  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hinami hated being alone. She had spent years without playmates of her own age, with no company but her parents and the books they gave her to read. The silence of solitude was uncomfortable for a growing girl, and the isolation caused her to be shy and awkward with others, as she was unsure how to interact with non-family, especially humans. It was for her own safety, she understood that she wasn't very strong or practiced with fighting and therefore vulnerable to doves and hostile ghouls, but a part of her still resented that she couldn't have friends to share stories and play games with, unlike so many other children and teenagers she read about or watched on television.

Kaneki and the members of Anteiku had done their best to help her improve her social skills, but she could not go anywhere alone for her own safety, and being left in the apartment while the others were gone chafed at her patience. She missed their company and worried constantly for their safety every time her big sister and friends left for a mission. After all, her parents had left and not returned to her, and she learned the hard way that anyone could die at any time if the wrong set of circumstances came about. 

The worries are at her constantly when she couldn't go with them, different horrible scenarios playing out in her mind in ever-worsening cycles. What if this time Kaneki was injured too badly to escape or defeat an opponent, and therefore killed or captured? The fear haunted her, even though she knew Kanna was strong, stronger than Touka and Nishiki-san, maybe even as strong as Koma-san or Irimi-san. There were always strong and dangerous ghouls like Aogiri's leaders waiting out there, and investigators never travelled alone, frequently ganging up to attack their targets. Her sister was not immortal, and Hinami sometimes felt that she knew that even better than Kanna herself did.

Hinami sighed, absently watching the television screen in an attempt to distract her from her morbid thoughts. She observed as the heroine fought the twisted monster on the screen with a bloody sword, screaming angrily and crying as the corpses of her friends lay mutilated on the ground. Normally she enjoyed these sorts of shows, but watching Saya fighting the Old Ones was bringing to mind the mental image of Kaneki fighting investigators as the bodies of Banjou and the trio lay bloodied and cold on rain-streaked pavement.

The cheery buzz of the phone ringing cut through the sounds of blades slicing apart flesh, muscle, and bone, and she happily muted the loud screaming and thumps from the anime before she ran to snatch up the phone.

" _Bonjour,_ is this the little princess?" Tsukiyama's velvety voice purred, and a part of her sagged in disappointment that it wasn't Kanna on the other end, but she quickly banished the ungrateful thoughts to the back of her mind.

"Hello, flower man!" She greeted, and she could almost see him smiling and holding out a fresh flower for her to examine, his face neutral but warm. "Did it go well?" She knew not to ask for many details while on the phone for safety's sake, but she desperately wanted reassurance that she hadn't lost anyone else tonight.

" _*Ma petite bichette,_ we're all in perfect health, it will be about an hour before the others return but they are not badly off in the least." His assurance made her release the tense emotions welling up within her, and she felt much lighter, smiling in relief and blinking away a stray tear with the knowledge that her fears were unfounded this time.

"That's good! I'm glad it went well."

 _"*Un petit favor, s'il vous plait._ I know that you must have noticed that Kaneki-chan and I have a...less than amiable past." Tsukiyama's voice became slightly pinched and he paused, clearly composing himself and banishing memories of said past from his mind. "I've been trying to prove to her that I only wish to assist her, but I fear that my efforts have been in vain. I truly wish to be her ally, the sword in her hand, but how can I be an ally when she refuses to trust me?"

Hinami's eyes widened as she realized where this was going. Flower man was asking her for advice on how to make her big sister like him! Perhaps he didn't expect her to realize that his feelings for Kaneki were not quite platonic, but she was young, not stupid. This would be fun.

"You need my help, flower man~?" She teased, smirking at the thought of telling this to Mrs. Inoue the next time she visited. The old woman had plenty of hilarious ideas and anecdotes, and would be a perfect sounding board for plans. After all, she barely needed to edit any parts of the story for her, and she already had an eagerly listening ear.

"Yes, very much so. Any suggestions on how to get in her good graces would be much appreciated, Himeko-chan. You do believe in my sincerity, _non_?"

"I do, but if you hurt her in any way I'll be very cross with you, Flower Man. I'll tell Touka-nee and Nishiki-san if you upset her, though Kanna-nee can hurt you plenty too." Hinsmi was deadly serious. Her big sister had been through enough, and she deserved to have the trust she gave repaid rather than betrayed. Tsukiyama was a strong ghoul, but Kaneki was a good deal stronger. Touka could kill him if she tried, and Nishiki at full strength could join in and be helpful, which would leave the flamboyant ghoul with little to no chance of winning.

"It is understandable. I am grateful that Kaneki-chan has a generous and gracious little sister like you."

"You already have a head start, flower man." Hinami smiled when she heard him draw in a breath, clearly surprised at the revelation. "Onee-chan likes it when you give her information, because you're helping her, and when you spar with her you remind her that she isn't in danger from you anymore." She heard him huff and giggled under her breath as she pictured his face, caught between a pout and a resigned smile. "She also likes it when you bring books and flowers here. Flowers make her sad because of her mother, but she still likes them, and you're good at figuring out books she likes."

"I see. I'm glad to know that my best efforts have not been entirely in vain."

"The best part is that you're nice to me and the others. You may tease Banjou-san a lot, but you haven't hurt any of us and you do your best to be nice even when you're annoyed." He was very polite most of the time, though there were times he definitely insulted Banjou and the trio in French knowing that they couldn't understand what he was saying. He did avoid actually hurting any of them even when they annoyed him, and held back from being rude. Tsukiyama definitely did like her, though. Plenty of the presents he brought were intended for her and not her onee-san, and he would talk to her and tell her interesting stories if she asked him.

Tsukiyama sighed lowly, clearly despondent. "Even so, she still doesn't allow me to approach her and repels me violently when I make the attempt. It seems it'll be years before I can stand close by her side."

"Well...maybe not years. You are making good progress." She tried to reassure him, though she felt that it wasn't working as intended.

" _*C'est la vie!_ I realize now that I'm not faring as badly as I had thought, but it still pains me to know the damage I've caused her."

He made the motion towards ending the call, and Hinami's mind raced as she was suddenly struck by an idea. It was worthy of one of the horror and crime novels she so adored, and the thought of it being carried out made her shiver and her palms grow damp. But it would work, or she didn't know Kaneki at all.

"Wait." She heard the rustle of his hair as he placed the phone against his face again, and she gulped, nervous and elated and sickened all at once by the words she was about to speak.

" _*Désolé, ma petite mademoiselle._ You've been most helpful—"

"Flower man, I have an idea!" A terrible and perfect idea. Her throat was dry and her voice nearly cracked as she called on him to stay and listen a moment longer, and the desperate tremor brought him to a halt. It made him pause, and she heard him suck in a breath before he asked the inevitable question.

"What would it entail, perchance?" He was cautious, but willing to take a chance. Good.

"On your first date you took her to a bad place, right? What if you got rid of it and let her help clean it up?" From what she had heard and guessed (she heard bits and pieces of conversation between Kaneki and the members of Anteiku after the incident), the Ghoul restaurant was a sick and twisted cesspool, a haven for rich ghouls that enjoyed the horrific torment and gruesome dismembering of the human victims. Kaneki hated what it stood for, and if it was leveled then it would be a major step towards proving that Tsukiyama was changed for the better. Hinami didn't love the idea of violence, but if it would prove that the man was sincere and make Tokyo a safer place in the process, then it was all for a good cause, especially if it helped her surrogate sister put to rest certain demons of her past.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hinami's suggestion was like an electrical shock to his system, freezing him in place and sending his thoughts racing wildly once the initial surprise faded. How daring, how _*avant-garde!_ It made perfect sense, almost too perfect, and he nearly slapped himself for not having the presence of mind to consider the idea before. He had longed to bid _*adieu_ to his "friends" at the establishment for quite a time, their interest in his angel was all too real and could lead to complications down the road.

To be rid of them all at once, now there was a thought. He had lost interest in going to the restaurant months before, the members being a simple _*divertissement_ to him from the start. However, the restaurant members witnessing Kaneki's battle with the scrapper were the reason Kaneki was put on the radar outside the 20th Ward and therefore became a person of interest to Aogiri and their ilk. While Tsukiyama was admittedly sadistic, he was not actively enthusiastic about watching the dismantling show due to the unnecessary brutality of the spectacle. He would shed no tears over the loss, he had no true friends there, and he had much more interesting things to keep him occupied now.

He'd need to plan quickly in order to do his part, _*pour mise en scène parfait._ He would need to think carefully to lure them in, to use the right words to make them come salivating like the fattened dogs they were at the promise of fresh food and entertainment beyond their wildest imaginings. The mere thought of them escaping him when he nearly held the keys of the gate to his personal Heaven in hand filled him with burning determination not to fail. They would not live to cause his chosen master more distress, they would be reduced to the paving of the path upon which he trod on his quest to prove himself as a worthy ally. A more fitting end for scum like them could not be conceived by his mind.

The Gourmet thanked Hinami sincerely for her help and hung up after wishing her good night. He had people to call for information, and he needed to gather the members of the restaurant all together. Telling them he had discovered the very rarest and most exotic dish he had yet to find and that he planned to share should do the trick. After all, none of the pigs would realize that his plan for the night, his _*arrière-pensée,_ involved their sacrifice on the altar of his chosen goddess. They would gather for a meal and become the _*plat du joir_ in a true _*coup de maître,_ an _*attaque au fer_ most stunning and gruesome. _*Quelle horror!_  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Takizawa Seidou was not a happy man. Even when he was munching his way through his grandmother's homemade baking in a quiet car while his partner read through files, he felt the irritation that had plagued him all day rearing its head, bringing wisps of half-suppressed memories of blank violet eyes and a subtle smirk. Hours after learning that his academy rival had joined the 20th Ward delegation, he couldn't tear his mind away from the problems she had already caused in her first day at work.

Mado Akira was possibly the most frustrating person Seidou had ever met. She was arrogant, contrary, cold, and dismissive, and simply being in the same room as her made him simmer with anger that easily burst free from him in response to her barbs and insults. Every time she looked at him he could sense her judging him and deeming him as lesser, unworthy of notice or praise in comparison to her talent and genius, and it rankled deeply that she was the one paired with his generous and heroic idol, Amon Koutarou. 

She had only been appointed as his partner two days ago and begun working nine hours before, but the way she treated kind, thoughtful, and determined Amon—as if he were an over-eager dog that needed to be brought to heel—was disrespectful and it galled him immensely. It took Shinohara, with his fatherly and stern disapproval, to stop their budding argument before it grew ugly in a completely unprofessional way, and he felt ashamed but vindicated all at once, knowing that Amon felt alienated and upset by the woman's behavior.

Houji-san generally preferred to stay quiet and leave Seidou to his thoughts when the younger man was troubled, knowing that Seidou would either work out his problems on his own and that if Seidou needed advice or assistance from him his junior would ask. The older man was extremely patient and diligent, and Seidou hoped that he could be a partner to be proud of. His actions reflected on his superior, and so he was on his best and most professional behavior. Seidou was a bit ashamed of himself for earlier, but Houji had smiled and told him that there were always unpleasant people in the workplace and it would take time and patience to learn how to handle them.

The two of them were on stakeout duty near the assumed location of the ghoul restaurant, a fancy stone building in ward seven. The tech workers were negotiating for the blueprints in order to check if there was space for the amphitheater used for the rumored dismantling show. It was Seidou and Houji's job to identify potential victims and customers as the left and entered, in order to match faces to names of missing persons and influential figures. The rich ghouls that frequented the infamous restaurant would undoubtedly have public faces in the human workd as well, even if just among crime families like the Yakuza and the runners of the black market.

So far, the job was very monotonous and boring. There had been a few average-looking persons wheeling carts and carrying equipment, and a suited man had led a tipsy-seeking woman in through a side door about an hour ago, but none of them seemed out of place in the area. This section of Ward 7 was well-to-do and had plenty of wealthy elites and serving staff on the streets, entering and exiting from different buildings at all hours. It made for a good cover, with many members of Japan's upper crust and their entourage regularly frequenting the posh neighborhood when they weren't vacationing in other countries or at their beach and countryside getaways for time off.

A seashell pink limousine with chrome finishings pulled up in front of the building under observation, and a beautiful blonde woman in high-line clothing stepped out, adjusting her fur coat and the golden opera glasses perched on her long nose. She was followed by two hooded bodyguards of equal stature, both wearing long grey coats that concealed bodily details. Seidou and Houji each noted down what details they could see of the car and its occupants as they went inside, including the liscence plate details, before settling back into their previous activities.

Seidou sighed, realizing that he had eaten nearly a third of the box's contents, which was enough for him to be practically buzzing with the mother of all sugar rushes, and putting it down. The last thing he needed was to gain twenty pounds from feasting on sweets, it would only give Akira another reason to mock him. After all, who ever heard of a plump investigator?

 _'Maybe I can take a jog around my block later,'_ he thought, grabbing a folder and a pen and settling in to do some admittedly urgent but mind-numbing paperwork. Even doing monotonous and pointless paperwork was better than doing nothing at all, and soon enough he was half-absorbed in the task and half-watching the suspected ghoul restaurant, his mind focused on his assigned duties.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, the stage is set and the players in position for the curtain call. Big revelations and two...maybe three different fights next time.
> 
> By the way, Hinami was watching Blood C for those who are curious.
> 
> *un bel esprit—a cultured and intelligent person  
> *raison d'être—reason for living, goal of existence  
> *l'appel du vide—the call/appeal of the void. This phrase generally refers to intellectual thoughts and considerations on suicide. The implication is that her scent makes him want to risk death for the sake a taste.  
> *Un cherchez la femme—the seeking/pursuit of a woman. Often used to refer to a man changing his behavior for the sake of a woman.  
> *froideur—coldness of demeanor  
> *déclassé—base, lower class, inferior  
> *ingénue—a pure, innocent, naive girl/woman  
> *chère mademoiselle—dear lady/lady love  
> *Ma petite bichette—my little lamb  
> *Un petit favor, s'il vous plait—A small favor, if you please  
> *C'est la vie!—That's life! Often used in reference to harsh circumstances.  
> *Desole, ma petite mademoiselle—I'm sorry, my little lady.  
> *Avant-garde—daring, edgy, unexpected, radical  
> *adieu—goodbye, literally meaning "to God." This can be insulting, as the wording indicates a permanent goodbye and therefore a wish for death or a disinterest in meeting again.  
> *divertissement—an amusement, an entertaining distraction  
> *pour mise en scène parfait—to set the perfect scene, to arrange all actors in position in preparation for a play to open.  
> *arrière-pensée—ulterior motive  
> *plat du joir—dish of the day, a non-standard dish that departs from the usual menu for novelty's sake  
> *coup de maître—a master stroke or a skillfully executed plan, synonym to "tour de force."  
> *attaque au fer—attack on the blade, an unexpected expulsion or parry of an opponent's strike in fencing  
> *Quelle horror!—How horrid/horrible! Often used sarcastically.


	5. Monsters and Mysteries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Action and drama this time! I split this chapter in two because of length, so I'll be posting the other half as another chapter after I finish editing it a bit.
> 
> The restaurant debacle and its immediate aftereffects are shown here, and next time Kaneki will be finding out some rather important news. I hope you all enjoy!

With barely two days notice, the plan was set to go. Kaneki was clearly startled, but after a long minute she finally smiled at Tsukiyama and accepted his idea. Sneaking in as the "meal" and decimating the attendees using the element of surprise clearly appealed to her, and the discovery of Madame A's potential connections to Kanou had her interest peaked. When the question of the little princess came up, he'd suggested to have her stay with Anteiku for the night, and so Hinami was going to stay at Touka's apartment for the night and return the next morning when Kaneki came to pick her up and fetch new meat. 

Banjou and the trio were fine with their part in everything, as the cleaning staff were usually disregarded and the sheer intimidation they would provide by blocking the doorway was likely to be enough to make many potential opponents panic and flee back towards Kaneki and Tsukiyama. All in all, the six of them should be plenty of muscle to take out the fifty-odd ghouls, none of whom were above an S ranking or even well-practiced fighters. It would be an absolute slaughter, and he'd earn more of Kaneki's acceptance and see her in the flush of battle all in one move. Checkmate it was not, but certainly a worthy gambit to take.

The next day was tense, with everyone training and Tsukiyama selecting a celebratory gift for afterwards: perhaps a bottle of bloodwine to share? A new ballet leotard for her to wear? A signed copy of a horror novel? In the end he decided to give her a poetry collection regarding the Ainu culture and a loose summer dress with a laced open back, perfect for warm weather and good for a fight should she need to use her rinkaku. _*Tres magnifique,_ the soft lavender silk would be fetching against her pale skin and it was functional enough that Kaneki was likely to keep it in her closet instead of returning it.

He elected to give the package to Hinami for safekeeping in case, and the (devious and clever) little princess gave him a conspiratorial wink, though her smile was strained. This was her idea, but she clearly didn't relish the fact that her words would get others killed, even if said others were bad people who would not hesitate to hurt them if given the chance. She truly was a kind and virtuous young lady, and he gave her his most genuine sympathetic smile. It was for the best that this business was completed now, and he didn't want a sweet young girl like her to be too burdened.

Kaneki left in the early afternoon to drop off Hinami and came back with a too-blank face, emotional pain rolling off of her in waves. Clearly she'd had a confrontation with Touka or another member of Anteiku, but he knew that now was not a good time to press her and instead offered to spar with her. She snapped five of his ribs with a single kick and left him coughing up blood for two hours, but it was worth the pain, for she lost some of her frustration and tension as a result and relaxed near to the point of amiability. His ribs healed within three hours with the aid of meat from their refrigerator, so he grinned and bore it easily enough.

They dropped off the four stooges at the warehouse for the cleaners and beat traffic on the way to the restaurant, arriving fifteen minutes early and lingering in the car until it was time to enter. Tsukiyama took notice of a car across the street whose occupants were carefully observing the entrance and informed the chauffeur that the CCG were probably watching the building, receiving a nod and a confirmation that the man had replaced the license plates earlier in case. When the hour came, the two ghouls pulled on hooded coats and pretended to make small talk, angling their heads so that their facial details were not recognizable to the observers.

The gathered ghouls meandered about on the balcony in anticipation, exchanging greetings and gossiping among themselves. He heard snatches of conversations, many involving speculation about him and his abrupt departure from the restaurant nearly five months ago. Someone mentioned he'd been seen with a beautiful and unknown young woman at the New Year's party, which sparked heated whispers among the members interested in being his lover. A few approached him in person to chat, and he easily handled the onslaught, until finally the required half-hour wait was finished and the presentation time began.

" _Voilà!_ I present you tonight's meal: yourselves!" He cried, and in a flourish Kanna emerged from the draping coat, her mask unzipped and her teeth bared in a feral grimace. "I bid you all _adieu._ "

Kaneki descended on the gathering of ghouls like a demon summoned from the depths of hell, her single kakugan glowing brightly and the tentacles of her rinkaku swaying menacingly behind her as she cracked her finger. She tore into the nearest group of ghouls with her hands and kagune alike, ripping them to pieces and drenching her battlesuit with gore. Tsukiyama withdrew his kagune as well, decapitating four ghouls in a single strike and impaling another in the lung before tossing the limp body off the balcony. Banjou and the trio blocked the doorway, and the trio all let loose their kagune, attacking the restaurant members with their full power.

It was a slaughter, the ghouls were mostly weak and all terrified, not thinking to organize themselves and running about like headless chickens. She abandoned her maulings and chased after Madame A the moment the ghoul emerged from the crowd, but out of nowhere her rinkaku tentacles were intercepted by rinkaku of the same shape and color. Two masked girls defended the screaming Madame, fighting Kaneki with _the exact same kagune she had inherited from Rize._

_*Mon Dieu,_ it seemed that Madame A was definitely connected to the elusive Doctor Kanou after all, and Kaneki was currently battling against her own "siblings." The battle was short but furious, and while no real damage was done to his angel of death, he could hardly bear to tear his eyes away, earning himself a ruined suit sleeve when one of his opponents pierced through his shield in a desperate bid to get around him. He swiftly decapitated the offender, but his suit was definitely ruined. Ah well, he had better ones, and Kaneki was more important than a suit.

The twin hybrids fled with Madame A through a hole they opened in the wall, and a clown masked man followed shortly behind them with a loud laugh. The other ghouls rushed towards the new exit, and Kaneki was forced to block the area with her kagune to catch the ones attempting to flee. Her frustration was clear as she made their blood rain down in torrents, tearing apart each ghoul that dared approach. Soon she was actively chasing them around the room and leaving Tsukiyama to guard the hole as she stalked unhurriedly after the screaming patrons, moving with that same predatory grace and springing on them, effortlessly batting away their attempts to attack her.

Kaneki fought with a terrifyingly brutal and efficient level of instinct-driven ferocity that Tsukiyama had never before witnessed in his life. She savagely dismembered and even disemboweled several of them, snapping necks, crushing skulls, and ripping organs free of the cages of flesh, bone, and muscle that protected them. When five tried to gang up on her she tore out the throat of the fifth with her teeth and impaled the other four so that they hung from her kagune like apples from a tree, and then she flung aside the corpses and continued her rampage.

Soon there were fifty-odd corpses lying in pieces around the massive room. Blood and viscera coated the stone floor in a murky reddish sludge, organs spilled from gaping abdomens, and severed limbs and heads trailed fluids from where they landed to where they lay still after bouncing or rolling. And in the epicenter of the corpse field was the Goddess of destruction who had brought the foul pigs to their ends with her bare hands, a solitary figure standing in the mouth of a dark tunnel looking out with a mismatched gaze. She stared down with burning eyes upon the destruction she had wrought without remorse for the multitude of crushed and mutilated insects that lay before her.

Kaneki's entire body was coated with the backsplash of her victims, and she was panting slightly, a beastial manner about her as her widened eyes stared at the hole left in the wall. There was an eerie look in her wide eyes as she stood there in the opening with the pose of a bloodthirsty lioness, blood running down her body to paint her pale face and hair scarlet and soaking through her battle suit until she looked like a madwoman that had just gone on a murder spree. Admittedly, that latter description was rather accurate, as she was admittedly (somewhat) mentally unstable and currently dripping with gore, but Tsukiyama loved her all the same, even as a part of him feared her and submitted itself before the power of her ferocity, dropping his gaze down from her face and withdrawing his kagune into his body.

He could sense as she turned towards him, and he waited a long moment before he subtly glanced upwards in order to gauge her mood. The fire in her eyes was banked down to a simmer, and she stepped carefully over the strewn flesh and bone as she went to stand at his side, her face unusually soft and hesitant. He bowed his head again and offered her his arm, unwilling to break the external silence when his _*détenteur du coeur_ was battling a veritable hurricane of internal strife. She would emerge once she had fought her internal demons to a standstill, and he would patiently wait for her gaze to be direct and unclouded once more.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kaneki stood beneath a cascade of clear water, little flecks of half-dried blood washing down the drain in transparent pinkish trails. This was the second longest shower she had ever taken in her nineteen years of life, second to the post-Aogiri shower session she tried to block from memory _(mad unrestrained laughter and centipedes and red stained pliers and **blood so much blood and HIS FINGERS AND TOngUE on HEr sKIn aND inSIde OF heR, washing her legs and tasting vomit in her throat at the drIED rEMaiNS oF CRumBLiNG rEd AnD wHiTe** )_. Fighting off flashbacks made her retreat into her mind, Shiro and Kanna both trying to suppress the flood of emotions, sensations, and images while gentle quiet Kuro took control for a short time.

When the Madame and her bodyguards had escaped, Shiro howled and screamed in rage before being shoved aside by a flood of pure bloodthirsty rage, a primal new (or not new? _Rize?_ no, but perhaps...?) persona that none of them recalled encountering tearing into the screaming ghouls that approached her (it?). After tearing into each and every restaurant member the beastial persona paused, frozen between the desire to devour its felled prey or to chase its escaped quarry. It took Tsukiyama's submissive display and the familiarity of his presence to snap one of them back into prominence, and for once it was Kuro, who usually slept or passively observed unfolding events, who was in control of their shared body and interacting with the others. 

The meek and gentle persona assured the others that she was fine with her most beautiful smile, enquiring after their wellbeing and haltingly suggesting that they leave and clean themselves up. The others had clearly been confused by her awkward and shy demeanor and the lack of assertiveness, but probably put it down to discomfort and tiredness. The host persona and other alter were still buried and dealing with inner demons, so she had to swallow her urge to curl up and scream, letting Tsukiyama direct them to the showers downstairs and keeping quiet in hopes that she could come across as contemplative rather than terrified and on the verge of panic.

All six of them needed a good rinse and scrub after the slaughter that ended mere minutes ago and they were taking turns using the two large cubicles and well-stocked products (more simple than the ones at home but perfectly adequate) to cleanse themselves and change into fresh clothing not permeated with the acrid reek of death. The ragtag gang had finished their official business at the Ghoul restaurant in less than twenty minutes but definitely needed more time than that to clean themselves off, and the necessary showers afterwards were less than perfunctory for everyone but Kanna, who had switched back with Shiro and gone on autopilot. 

The shower had run crimson for more than twenty minutes, as she was bloodier than she had been after her confinement in the Eleventh Ward after the mess, and when she emerged her hair was still faintly pink, but she no longer stank and she just wanted to lie down and sleep for days. The knowledge that the Madame had escaped her and so had the hybrid girls rang hollow in her chest, and while tracking Madame A's hiding place would probably only take a few weeks with help from Hori, she still wanted to scream in frustration that her lead had slipped through her fingers. She had broken down into silent sobs as she knelt on the tiles, suppressing the urge to wail to the sky like a child. 

Kaneki's eyes were red and she had her head lowered as she padded out, nodding to Jiro to indicate that she was done. The older woman probably figured out what she had been doing and kept quiet out of respect for her distress, staying quiet and keeping her expression neutral as she took her own turn, leaving the teenager to dry off and dress herself. Their bloody clothes had been tossed in sealed bags to be discreetly cleaned at Tsukiyama's manor, and she slid on a grey sweater dress and soft black leggings with relief, the clean dry clothing feeling heavenly against her skin. 

She sat and stared at the wall in silence, absently listening to the sounds of Banjou being teased by Sante down the hall and Tsukiyama's uncharacteristically quiet responses. The Gourmet had confused her with this move. Clearly he wasn't all that attached to any of the other members of the restaurant, but what purpose did it serve him to kill them all off? Shiro insisted that he wanted to impress her and fatten her up, while Kuro argued that he wanted to prove that he was trustworthy by eliminating the potential threat posed by the restaurant, as the members knew what she was and probably told others she existed. Kanna wasn't certain, but the events benefitted her, and even if he was planning a scheme, she was stronger than him now and she was no longer a naive fool, perfectly capable of handling some elaborate plot to win her trust.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Shachi and company looked down at the building that housed the infamous ghoul restaurant, and they all knew they were too late. The sour-bitter scent of ghoul blood washed over them even though they were on the roof of the building next door, and the scents of Eyepatch, the Gourmet, and her other hangers-on mingled with the heavy stench of gore and death. They had just missed her, seeing the tail lights of a car and a flash of white hair turning the corner nearly two miles down the road as they arrived, and Naki swore heatedly, trying to chase the car until Shachi stopped him with a raised hand and a firm look.

"We will have another chance, be patient," he spoke, his bass voice rumbling in his throat as he stared piercingly at the spot where the car had vanished from view. Naki growled and shook with frustration as he felt the urge to disobey and take pursuit, then trembled, starting to sob loudly as he quickly lost track of Eyepatch's scent amidst the odors of the city. Ayato huffed, scenting the air and wrinkling his nose in disgust.

"That bitch may smell not so bad on her own, but she always generates a fucking stink from everyone else wherever she goes," he grumbled, looking almost constipated from the level of his annoyance. "Fucking hybrid even went cannibal too. She probably ate the rich fucker we were after."

"Big bro Yamori...I couldn't avenge you today." Naki sniffled, and his ever-present pair of bodyguards acted to comfort him, one offering a handkerchief and the other patting his shoulder soothingly. The gesture only made him sob harder, and after a moment Ayato growled low in his throat and kicked him.

"Dumbass, there are Doves in that car over there. Want them to hear you and call their friends on us?" He snarled, carefully eyeing said car. The humans were busying themselves with writing on papers and eating food of some sort, so they hadn't been alerted, but if the idiot got any louder they'd probably hear him even with the windows up. Naki refused to respond, still sobbing, and Ayato sighed. "That 'big brother' of yours would be pissed if you let yourself get killed or captured because you got sloppy over stupid shit like this."

"Yamori-onii-san would be pissed," the older ghoul paused, wiping at his snot-covered face and straightening his posture determinedly. "I'll be faster next time so I can fight Eyepatch. That bitch will pay when I find her again!" He shouted, jumping up and punching the air. Ayato groaned and rolled his eyes, grabbing the vengeful ghoul by his suit collar and dragging him away, with his bodyguards following close behind as they headed back to Headquarters.

Shachi remained quiet, gazing down at the closed doors of the restaurant with a contemplative gleam in his eyes. The scent trail from Eyepatch had been curiously mingled, and the other scent intermingled with her scent had him frowning harshly. Rize's familiar arrogant spice and the girl's own sweet human scent were melded on an incredible level, but the other scent mixed in with her own was familiar as well, one that he recalled from the meeting and a few other times in his recent experiences with Aogiri.

"Curious. What is he planning?" The ghoul muttered to himself, taking one last inhale and furrowing his eyebrows forebodingly. He didn't like this development, but confronting the mysterious Aogiri head would likely cause unnecessary conflict, so he resolved to wait. The answer would undoubtedly reveal itself in time, in the way of all mysteries and secrets—even death could not hide truths forever.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Takizawa Seidou gaped unattractively as he passed through the doorway of the arena. It was a macabre mess that put most horror movies to shame, with scattered corpses (many in pieces) in finery and elegant masks and puddles of blood and other fluids decorating the floor. He could see Amon and Akira on the other side of the room, examining a hole in the wall and a series of slash marks from kagune decorating the bricks, and his partner was swabbing a larger series of slashes for kagune residue, bagging the swabs for later examination. The young inspector supposed he should join him, and so he reluctantly approached the gaping hole in the wall with mincing steps as he tried to avoid stepping on the scattered bodies or puddles of internal fluids.

He felt sick to his stomach after noticing the state of the pile of bodies by the hole—they made the other bodies look like they were sleeping by comparison, torn to bloody pieces and still frozen in a rictus of extreme agony from their shredded bodies and missing or dangling limbs that dripped with their own drying blood. The disturbing sight had him freeze and shake in disgust and Seidou ducked outside for a moment to vomit, the gruesome sight of an opened rib cage with organs spilling out from the gaping abdomen making him unable to hold in his lunch. He was secretly relieved to see that he wasn't the only one unable to keep his dinner down, and returned after rinsing his mouth, determinedly walking towards Houji where the older man was examining a corpse that had been repeatedly run through by a blade.

It was clear that the Gourmet had turned on his compatriots, though the reason for his betrayal was unclear, and Seidou swallowed down the rising bile as he lost himself in thought. The Gourmet was an S rank ghoul, but taking out more than fifty ghouls on his own? That was unlikely, and the fact that Akira and Amon had been called in meant that a ghoul they were assigned to had been involved. It was unfortunate that his academy rival had to be here for such a big case, but he and Houji-San would be getting clues and credit of their own from such a big lead, and at least the irritating genius wasn't bothering him or Amon at the moment.

Still, the mystery gave him an unpleasant chill, especially when he heard some of the other investigators mentioning signs of cannibalism on the corpses. If the Gourmet or his companion were going cannibal, then the cases would get more dangerous. Seidou was a devoted and diligent investigator, but a rampaging kakuja was nearly invulnerable, perfectly capable of killing him as easily as swatting a fly. The thought of having to fight the Gourmet some day was terrifying on its own, but if the infamous ghoul became a kakuja he'd be heading into SS rank territory. He hurriedly busied himself in the familiar territory of conversation and note taking, not wanting to break down and have a panic attack in such a public space. Akira would never let him live it down.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Amon Koutarou, the newly promoted and well-acclaimed First-Class Investigator, stood before the dark maw of the ragged hole in the six foot thick brick and concrete wall, staring absently at the freshly swabbed slashes from a rinkaku kagune that decorated the fragmented and battered stone. There had been previous rumors that the mysterious Eyepatch ghoul and the Gourmet were running together, but this was entirely unprecedented. Especially when it looked like the rumors of the Gourmet's new partner being a voracious and vicious cannibal had just been proven beyond doubt.

Eyepatch had seemed so frail, so desperate and weak against him and his righteous power, when the little ghoul had stood before him and urged him to turn back, to abandon his partner and mentor to the non-existent mercies of White Rabbit and Daughter Fueguchi. She had kicked and punched him with blows that left minor bruises and been batted about by Doujima as he moved in for the kill, refusing to withdraw her kagune and fight him seriously for several minutes until she finally reached a decision and bit him. The sight of those glowing tentacles whipping around her body with the deadly power of a praying mantis ready to strike was seared into his brain, as was the ease with which she had dodged and repelled his heavy blows before breaking and discarding his quinque.

Looking at the deep and harsh markings from her rinkaku kagune from where the tentacles had sliced through stone like butter, Amon felt almost numb. The memory of those same tentacles tossing him aside like a rag doll and twisting together as tears ran down her face and she clutched herself tightly was clear in his mind's eyes, and the man knew without a doubt that the girl really had wanted to avoid killing him, even though it would have been so much simpler to do what she had here in this wrecked arena and kill him without remorse. Why? Why spare him, a human and an investigator, when she hasn't hesitated to kill and devour others of her own kind?

He now realized that the ghoul had held back considerably more than he had originally estimated when they clashed that night in the rain, seeing the sheer destruction she had caused almost singlehandedly. Beyond a doubt she deserved an S Class ranking (if not an SS Class ranking) if she could kill more than forty ghouls singlehandedly, several of them A rank and a few S rank themselves, without leaving behind any of her own blood or flesh from injuries. The Gourmet's RC traces were only present on about fifteen of the corpses, which drove home the sheer power that Eyepatch wielded in her fury.

What was her goal? What was her connection to these high profile ghouls like Owl, Rabbit, Fueguchi, and the Gourmet? Why leave the 20th Ward and kill ghouls in other Wards, seemingly at random, with the help of the notorious Gourmet? What had she been doing at the 11th Ward Aogiri base that night? Why did she let him live? Was she a cannibal even then, preferring to prey on her own species and not on her natural prey, humanity? Why did she cry and beg him to run? What has she meant when she declared that humans and ghouls could learn together? The questions ran around in his head until he could barely think but for the confusion, and he snapped himself free of the train of thought in order to reply to a medic that no, he was not experiencing intensive nausea.

Some part of him, beneath the desire for justice and the part of him sickened by the excessively thorough demise of her enemies, longed to find out the answers, and to learn what she meant by saying that humans and ghouls were not so different. He wanted to know, and Amon Koutarou was a man of determination. He would hunt Eyepatch down and speak to her about this somehow, even if he had to capture and confine her to a cold cell in Cochlea's basement next to the accursed ghoul that raised him to do so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, next time (which'll be pretty shortly) big news comes out, drama happens, canon is essentially scrapped for a while, and (shhh) we'll see Hide! 
> 
> *Tres magnifique—very magnificent, wondrous, etc.  
> *Mon Dieu—My God, an expression of surprise or shock  
> *détenteur du coeur—holder of the heart. Basically, he's really got it bad for her. Not that we all didn't know that already.
> 
> By the way, this is almost to 1000 hits. I was thinking a Kiriban thing might be a bit fun. If someone can screenshot the 1000th hit and other markers like that—1500 and 2000 hits, 50 and 70 and 100 comments (not counting my own), 50 kudos, etc., then you'll get a special mention or something. Maybe a oneshot? I've never done this before, but it seems like it could be fun.


	6. Remembrance and Revelation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally much shorter and included a bit with Aogiri and a snapshot of Hide working with Akira and Amon, but I expanded and moved that to next chapter instead. This chapter was the latter third of chapter five but I split it in two for convenience and then added on to this one. Good thing I split them because Jesus Christ they're both long enough chapters on their own. 
> 
> The dialogue up until Uta and Yomo come in is from the manga but altered a bit, because canon just went "poof" for a while. I'll still add in parts of the canon plot but other stuff will be involved too, especially Kaneki's pregnancy

Night was falling on Tokyo, the sun having sunken below the horizon and leaving the faintest remnants of pink and gold behind as what stars were visible through the light and smog lit the deep purple sky. The streetlights were on and a few people meandered down the streets, avoiding eye contact as they went about their business, the utilitarian concrete and brick buildings neither inviting nor repulsive and what greenery there was being sparse and just a bit overgrown from lack of care. It was just an ordinary evening as far as they were concerned, just another uneventful weekday night, and the citizens were content enough to scurry along home or make off for night jobs without complaint.

The normal evening scenery of the was disrupted at the arrival of three strangers that moved along the sidewalk with purposeful steps, two tall men to either side and a young woman in the middle. The bigger man had a dark scowl and was shouting at the other man, who was brushing off his words with nonchalant gestures and a wide smile, the two of them being ignored by their female companion. The striking young woman that walked between her larger companions looked even less approachable, with a blank and cool demeanor, her single visible eye half-lidded as she strode forwards without pause or deliberation. Even with the loud argument, the strangers (were they yakuza members, perhaps? Better not to bother them in case) exuded a vibe that warned others to mind their own business, and everyone went silent and made way for them.

"This seems nothing like the rest of Asakusa..." Kaneki murmured, gazing at the scenery from the corner of her eye as they passed through the neighborhood. Their group was settled in the quieter and largely residential neighborhood of Yanaka, though they were living in one of the nicest and most modern apartment buildings. She and the others frequently went into the main sectors of Asakusa and Ueno when they had down time, even visiting Ikebukuro, Akihabara and Ameyoko at times with Hinami in tow.

Hinami loved to visit all the attractions she had never been allowed to see before: the zoo, the parks, museums, curio shops, clothing stores, cosplay cafes, cat and rabbit cafes, bookstores, music stores, arcades, traditional theaters (they went to see a Noh play and an Opera at Tsukiyama's insistence), and especially the movie theaters. Kaneki had taken her adoptive sister to see the grand opening of a brand new horror movie with the rest of the group tagging along, and Banjou held Hinami's hand the entire time, jumping and screaming more frequently than anyone else in the theater much to the trio's amusement. However, they avoided the areas with few attractions and shops to visit, therefore the neighborhoods to the south of Asakusa were not a place they had been through before except by train. 

Their actual destination was located in the outskirts of Asakusa, the highly commercial entertainment district of Ward Six, namely an office owned and shared by the three strongest native ghouls in Ward Six, disciples of the former Ward leader, Kamishiro "Shachi" Matakasa. They had elected to walk there rather than take a bus, but Tsukiyama had taken a while to arrive, showing up several minutes after the appointed time in a fancy new trench coat (that was admittedly quite high-end and accentuated his natural attractiveness) and they had nearly left without him. Banjou was still quite put out at the delay and taking every opportunity to snarl at the erstwhile man.

"It's already getting dark—I wonder if we'll be late," Kaneki mused, brushing a speck of dust from her open vest as two tired looking salarymen moved aside to let them pass, ceasing their previous mutterings about annoying bosses and demanding wives in favor of going silent and not attracting attention.

"We're probably cutting it pretty close," Banjou grunted, looking at the sky and frowning. Their appointment was set for *18:00, and the sun had completely set nearly fifteen minutes before, as usual for March. They had planned to arrive five minutes early in order to leave the impression of being serious and respectful, but now they would be lucky to avoid being late and making a bad impression as disrespectful and uncaring. 

They needed to be careful, as the Sixth Ward ghouls were capable enough to cause trouble should they go against against their group. Even if Kaneki and Tsukiyama would likely beat them in an outright fight, they had information on Shachi, who was possibly connected to the missing Rize, and cooperation with these peaceable and well-respected ghouls was ideal. The infamous binge eater had come from the Sixth Ward before migrating to the Eleventh Ward, and her usage of the same alias surname as the Ward leader was hardly coincidence.

"It's okay, we'll make it," Tsukiyama declared, brushing back his bangs and smiling widely. Banjou shot another venomous glare at the Gourmet, who completely disregarded his ire with the ease of long practice. They were now crossing into the main section of Asakusa, and the office building where their hosts were awaiting them was just ahead, lights shining brightly and the tinted windows concealing the inhabitants from view like a two-way mirror.

"Tsukiyama, we're late because you were taking forever to get ready!" The bearded man shouted, his nerves making his irritation all the more palpable.

"Ha-ha. Monsieur Banjoi, a gentleman is a man who never gets in a rush," Tsukiyama purred, opening the door for Kaneki and pointedly clicking the fine soles of his fancy shoes against the polished wooden floor of the building.

"Well, you need to rush a little more! Also, I'm not a gentleman, a Monsieur, or Banjoi!" Banjou was very put out by Tsukiyama's refusal to say his name correctly. Kaneki sighed, pinching her nose. The last thing that she needed was for the two of them to be baiting each other when a united front was key to gaining respect from their hosts.

"Any outfit would have been fine...it's not like we're going to a party," she interjected, stopping the budding argument before it could escalate further. She sighed under her breath as Banjou went quiet, seething a bit but embarrassed about losing control so easily. Kaneki turned at the stairwell, taking the stairs two at a time and quickly reaching the third floor. There was a single door at the end of the hall, with "Orca" on the plaque above the doorway. Kanna switched places with Shiro then, letting her cooler and more manipulative persona take control.

"Non," Tsukiyama insisted, stepping a bit ahead of her and wagging a finger in mock disapproval. "It's only that, if _you_ show up there, any place can become a party. Right, Kaneki-chan?" The flamboyant ghoul opened the door for her again, and the white-haired girl stepped inside cautiously, a wide-eyed look of innocence on her face.

"They're here, keh." Said Gil, staring at them with harsh eyes from where he sat on a leather couch. The woman, Yayoi, checked her watch, obviously unimpressed with her ally's lack of diplomacy.

"Look, they're twelve seconds ahead of time," she announced, clearly trying to avert a scene from her comrade. The third ghoul, Osamu, remained quiet, busying himself with carefully cleaning wine glasses behind the bar. _Lovely,_ Gil was already determined to be distrustful and confrontational towards them. The scent of the bloodwine that emanated from his glass and the open bottle made Shiro's nose twitch from disgust, and she was careful not to allow her unease and disgust to join in with the faint embarrassment and sheepishness of her expression.

"S-Sorry for keeping you waiting," Shiro apologized, purposely scratching the side of her cheek and blushing slightly for added effect. The two non-hostile ghouls were still wary, but her meek and unassertive facade helped to lower their guard, and soon they finished with exchanging pleasantries and got down to business. Kaneki sat in one of the provided chairs while her companions elected to stay standing, Tsukiyama proceeding to start the official business by providing the information on Cochlea's escapee numbers.

Gil, who was practically jumping on any excuse to attack them, prodded and shouted, trying to ferret out more information and ascertain their truthfulness. When Shiro brought up the possibility of Shachi being faced with the choices of being cannibalized or following Aogiri things nearly came to blows, but she directed Banjou to remain calm and continued to be civil and courteous. It helped to defuse the tension, though the following query about the restaurant from Yayoi proved that they weren't quite trusted yet.

Soon enough the exchange was finished, and Shiro switched back with Kanna as they took a shortcut back to their abode. Banjou's commentary on the appearance of the mysterious twin hybrids called their faces to mind, and Kanna brooded, contemplating the fact that other hybrids existed and the possible threat they posed. What was Kanou's goal in creating the three of them? Surely he didn't do it for fun, and the existence of the twins made it clear that Kaneki hadn't been a fluke. How many others had fallen victim? Why had Kanou let her go free and yet kept the others by his side?

"Now that Kanou and Madame A have been linked together....what's our next move?" Banjou had finally stopped being jittery and aggressive now that they were in the safe zone, settling into a more serious mood. Kanna hummed in response, her visible eye narrowed.

"Let's stop by Helter Skelter, if we can collect more data on Cochlea we might be able to deal with Itori-san," Kaneki suggested, nodding to Tsukiyama. The purple-haired ghoul winked and whipped out his phone to text Hori. "We didn't even get anything last time.

"Pff...that means we'll be having a revenge match after all," Banjou muttered, furrowing his eyebrows. They turned a corner and left the alleyway behind, now on the edge of Yanaka.

"The ones taking responsibility for the data will be she and I..." Kaneki began, before pausing, staring ahead at the figure that had emerged from another alley up ahead.

"Huh?" Banjou squinted in the half-light, stopping at her side and squaring his shoulders. The newcomer glared silently, and the bearded ghoul could see the profile of his beak-like nose in the shadowed profile of his face. "Oh...isn't he..."

"Gil-san, what's the matter? What brings you here?" Kanna asked, keeping a relaxed and open but still guarded posture. If he attacked here she was fully ready to handle it, though she still hoped to avoid a fight if possible.

"There's something that caught my attention. You Eyepatched bastard," the ghoul growled, glaring right into her uncovered eye. "What are you sniffing around for? Weren't you involved in that restaurant case!?" He barked, taking a step forwards and grinding his heel on the sidewalk.

"I'm sorry, but I haven't caused any trouble," Shiro said, taking the forefront as she assessed the situation. Gil was clearly not appeased, leaping forwards and until he was less than a foot away from her.

"Still going to play dumb!?" He roared, taking a stance as he reared back his fist. "THAT REALLY PISSES ME OFF!!" He slammed his fist into the wall when she dodged him, shattering concrete and leaving a small crater where his fist landed. Shiro hopped back a step and clicked her tongue, deeming that she would need to remove her vest before it got dirty. She hated ruining her clothing, especially when it was brand new.

"Hmph, how uncivilized..." Tsukiyama huffed, examining his nails. Kaneki was perfectly capable of taking down the snarling dog without his help, so he didn't bother to interfere. A strong leader handles their own challenges, after all.

"KANEKI!" Banjou shouted, taking a step forwards and preparing to leap in and assist her. Shiro turned her covered eye towards him, her intent clear enough that he immediately stopped and stepped back to wait. Even though Gil was charging her again, she didn't take a stance herself, pulling off her vest and standing straight.

"It's fine, step back," she ordered, and blocked the oncoming kick with her raised calf as she tossed the cloth backwards. "Do you need to fight me no matter what?" She queried, a bemused smile on her face. The man fumed at her, drawing back his leg and adjusting his center of gravity as he continued on his offensive tack.

"THAT'S—" he reared his leg back again, and Shiro prepared to block him—"RIGHT!" She finished, stomping in a mud puddle and splashing a small amount directly into her right eye as she leaned back again. Banjou protested the dirty tactic, but Tsukiyama merely grinned, seeing Kaneki easily block Gil's punch even as she rubbed at her befouled eye. The Gourmet placed a restraining hand on Banjou's shoulder, assuring the older man that Kaneki could handle herself just fine. Really, just who did the Sixth Ward Ghoul think he was dealing with?

She did so beautifully, blocking or dodging every hit and somersaulting through the air after using her attacker as a springboard. She soared closely over their heads and landing on Gil again before flipping backwards to the ground, blocking yet another blow with her foot as she did a back handspring and returned to being upright once more. Shiro was navigating by touch and hearing alone, feeling the air currents parting as his fist approached and leaning out of the way again. It was a bit difficult without her vision, and she was almost tempted to remove her eyepatch, but she held firm.

When Gil tangled her legs with his own and socked her in the jaw, Shiro took advantage to wrap her legs around him and pin the furious ghoul to the ground, twisting and popping his arm from the socket in the process. _Easy._ She stared down at him with her newly cleared eye, meeting his upturned eye with a glacial gaze before her sweet smile returned and she sat up, releasing him.

"Please forgive my rudeness," she apologized, standing and stepping back. "Since we're the same as you guys in the Sixth Ward, why don't we stop fighting?" She asked him, watching with her eye wide and open, her body language returned to relaxed and sociable.

"Tch. Who would want to associate with a wolf in sheep's clothing?" He grunted, standing and adjusting his dislocated arm with a wince. He turned and started walking back towards the office, grumbling under his breath. "Just looking at you makes me think about that stupid brat...without them, Shachi-san would be—"

"Are you referring to Rize-san?" Shiro interjected, her eye narrowed again. So, had Rise been involved in the incident that caused Shachi to be captured by Doves? Interesting. It explained more of the negative reception here from the Ward leaders. Gil paused before shaking his head harshly, his shaggy hair ruffling from the motion.

"I don't need to talk to you about that." The ghoul sped up as he retreated, clearly uninterested in continuing the conversation. Shiro watched him go, contemplating what she had learned. She switched back with Kanna and went home with Banjou while Tsukiyama headed to his own apartment to meet up with Hori. She needed to give Hinami her promised haircut, after all. She stopped at a convenience store to grab a fashion magazine for reference. Perhaps the jaggedly symmetrical ear-length bob that the idol on the front cover sported would work on Hinami, her hair had grown out enough for it to work.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Helter Skelter bar in the Fourteenth Ward was a popular gathering spot for ghouls, serving bloodwine and other drinks derived from various human parts in addition to serving various kinds of regular alcohol for when humans stumbled in. It was almost empty now at two AM, with the last few customers chattering drunkenly in a corner or busy making a mess of the restrooms. Itori sat at the bar with Kaneki beside her, idly playing with the cork of a bottle of high-quality bloodwine. The smell of human products turned Shiro's stomach, and she had to swallow down bile several times and sip a glass of plain water to distract herself, keeping focused on her business.

"The list of escapees from Cochlea? I see." Itori frowned a bit as she smelled the bottle, which did smell a bit ripe. Perhaps it hadn't been cooled properly. "Well done, Kaneki. You can't get this kind of info unless you hack the CCG's computers. How did you get it?" She probed, regarding her from the corner of her vermillion eyes. Kaneki took another sip of her water glass, her own eyes lightly closed. She could tell that Itori was wondering if she would actually tip her hand and reveal the source, testing her ability to play the information game as a possible equal, and had to hide a slight smirk of accomplishment.

"I'm not telling you," she replied, setting down her glass and swirling the contents, waiting for Itori to take the bait. The redheaded ghoul sighed dramatically, rolling her head and shoulders back as she shifted in her seat.

"Humph...looks like you've begun to understand the value of information. In a way that makes me happy." She said, setting down the cork and spinning it. Itori paused before turning back to her, a glint in her eyes "Anyway...IT WAS YOU, RIGHT?! THE CASE AT THE RESTAURANT!" Oh dear, Itori had grabbed Shiro by the shoulders and was shaking her. "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THE RUMOURED TREASURE? GIVE IT TO ME!" Yep, Itori was very enthusiastic about this, Kanna mused, and Kuro giggled as Shiro groaned and protested the treatment, trying to pry off her companion's fingers before they bruised. She could handle pain, but it wasn't as if she enjoyed it.

"Well, this was inevitable," she groaned, and Itori loosened her grip, pouting and whining that the rumors had been wrong and that there really should have been a treasure. What the ghoul would have done with it if it existed Kaneki had no idea, but soon enough they were back on track, the older woman settling down and continuing the session.

"Well...that aside, what would you like to know about?" Itori asked, sipping her bloodwine again.

"Kanou's whereabouts," Shiro shot back. Itori snorted into her glass and shook her head. Shiro hadn't expected much out of that query, but it never hurt to try in case. Oh well.

"Sorry, but that information is out of my range. Ask something else," the informant declared, sitting back in her chair and lightly kicking the bar. Shiro glanced at her before continuing.

"Then, what about the whereabouts of Madame A?" She tried, only to receive a frown again.

"Don't know," Itori shot back, and Shiro cursed internally. Of course it wouldn't be that easy.

"Then, what do you know about Kanou? Since the name and the person matched, you were able to identify them, right?" She enquired, giving Itori a piercing look. Itori tossed her hair back over her shoulder, smirking subtly in approval.

"Oh, my...asking for something like that...if I tell you, will you be satisfied even though there aren't many details?" The informant asked, casting her an appraising look and pouring her a glass of blood wine. Shiro blinked and shook her head, raising her glass of water, and Itori shrugged, downing the rest of her own glass in a single gulp and starting to sip delicately from the fresh glass.

"It doesn't matter. As long as I get some information about that guy, I don't care how trivial it is." Shiro said, her voice low and dark. Anything at all could potentially be useful in bringing down Kanou and preventing the worst-case scenario of him falling into Aogiri's hands.

"Kanou's previous profession was a coroner at the CCG," the woman announced, leaning back again with her hands against the bar. Shiro raised her eyebrows. Really? That could explain some things. "It looks like he worked there for quite a while. Then, he resigned to succeed his father's hospital." Itori poured herself more bloodwine, the thick red fluid sloppily splashing in the glass and sending a wave of nauseatingly ferrous smell towards Shiro, who wrinkled her nose in disgust. Eugh, she tasted a mouthful of bile from the smell alone.

"A CCG coroner? Did he perform autopsies on ghouls?" She asked, entirely focused on the redheaded woman, who shrugged in response. Damn.

"I wonder," Itori trailed off, sipping her wine again with a faraway look in her eyes. They sat in silence for a few minutes while Shiro and the other personas debated in headspace. It stood to reason that a coroner would be involved in removing the kakuhou of ghouls in order to turn them into quinques for the use of investigators. As a trained doctor he would be familiar with human anatomy from dissecting corpses in medical school, and if he was dissecting ghouls and their victims for the CCG, then the ease with which had had transplanted Rize's kakuhou into her was explained. He had the training already and might have stolen or scavenged quinque steel tools and RC inhibitors from the CCG for such purposes.

But why? What did Kanou Akihiro gain from transforming humans into artificial hybrids? Scientific curiosity alone would likely have been satisfied with a single successful test subject, but if he was making more half-ghouls and Aogiri were pursuing him...what was his plan, his ultimate objective? How many others had fallen victim already, how many lives had he ruined or snuffed out in his quest? It was honestly chilling and confusing to contemplate.

"Now then, that's all the information I have," Itori announced, laughing a bit at the end, and just like that Shiro temporarily abandoned her train of thought, refocusing on the exchange. The white haired ghoul slid the folder with the escapee files across the bar, and it was eagerly snatched up with childlike excitement by the older ghoul, who let out a delighted squeal at the thickness of the packet inside. The redhead opened it and let out an 'ooh' of wonder. 

"Well?" Shiro asked, running her fingertip around the rim of her glass to hear it ring. Itori cooed and kissed her on the cheek before pulling out the first page, looking at the wealth of information with a giddy expression on her face. Shiro observed absently as Itori shuffled through the papers with a considering eye, taking note of every little fact listed in case of later usefulness. The informant continued to peruse the folder, saying a few phrases out loud and repeating a name here and there to memorize it. 

She paused on the paper listing the three SS rank escapees, her red eyes widening as her mouth opened in a perfect little 'o,' which would have made Kanna flush and stutter not long before. The older woman was incredibly gorgeous, but her personality wasn't the type she was attracted to—Kanna was attracted to beautiful and elegant women with shy and gentle demeanors, well-mannered, classy, and mysterious in contrast to Itori's bubbly, sarcastic, and teasing attitude.

"Having three SS rank ghouls escape, and the Dove's actions as well...both are huge issues," she noted, looking delighted at the prospect of all the chaos and gossip that would come of the development. "Ohh, quite an interesting face he's making. Shachi, from the Sixth Ward."

At that moment the door of the bar opened, and a too-familiar man in floral print and women's skinny jeans stepped in, and Kaneki felt as if a bucket of ice was dumped on her head. _Nico._ What was he doing in here of all places when he was running with Aogiri? Shiro jumped to her feet, nearly knocking over her chair in the process as she took a defensive stance. Nico clucked at her, commenting on her "scary face" and making a creepy expression as he stepped forward, and it took Itori's intervention to prevent a fight.

"Hey, don't make a mess in my shop, she grumbled, looking peeved. Nico cooed and insisted that he wasn't trying to cause a scene, entreating Kaneki to sit down and calm herself. As he said, 'no need to be so hostile when I'm not even part of Aogiri Tree.' Shiro didn't sit down, but she relaxed from a fighting stance to being simply guarded as Nico explained the extent of his Aogiri connections before plopping on a grumpy Itori and hugging her, getting an annoyed response instead and obviously dismissing the woman's irritation at the invasion of personal space without care.

In the end, it took Itori insisting that Nico was just a tail-chasing gay man with bad taste in partners and Nico offering his knowledge of Aogiri's inner workings to settle the matter, and Shiro slowly settled, absorbing every word that the odd ghoul spoke. Aogiri's origins in the 24th Ward were definitely interesting knowing the reputation of that infamous hellhole explained a lot about the cruelty and power displayed by Aogiri Tree's core members. And their goals...so, Kanou and Rize were just stepping stones on the path to reveal a liar high on the chain? But who was the liar and what lies were they telling? It made no sense at all.

Nico was about to step closer and impart one final piece of information to her when the door opened again, and in stepped Uta and Yomo, both of them looking more than a bit sloshed. Yomo was trying to bat away Uta, who was poking his cheek and had an arm around the silver haired ghoul's neck to hold himself upright. They looked ridiculous, and Itori started teasing them immediately, comparing them to an idiot high-school couple and scolding them for making a mess when Uta fell and knocked into a table, laughing loudly. Nico giggled and left, skirting the drunken men and waving gaily as he skipped out the door, and Itori started yelling at Uta, pulling the chortling ghoul up by his ear.

Yomo sat in Itori's abandoned chair with a grunt, snacking his head as he slumped to the bar, and Kanna raised her eyebrows even higher. What in the world? It looked like Itori was right when she mentioned that Yomo was a lightweight the first time she visited. The ever-stoic man was still blank-faced, but his eyes were bleary and his hair was a rumpled mess with messy little braids in it, probably from Uta messing around. Yomo's customary grey jacket was tossed on the floor in a pile and his top three shirt buttons were undone, and Kanna wondered if the rumor about Uta and Yomo sleeping together was true after all. 

Meanwhile, Itori was tearing Uta a new one as he sat on the table, swaying in place with a shit-eating grin on his face. The mask maker's beanie and sunglasses were askew, revealing his ever-present kakugan and the haphazard braids in his hair that matched Yomo's. He whined at Itori and hiccuped loudly in the middle of his sentence, prompting her to groan and smack him on the back, which only made him fall forward on his face and start giggling like a middle schooler riding on the waves of a sugar rush.

Kaneki really wanted a camera right now. She never expected to see her adult friends acting like college-age partiers, and the sight of Itori yelling at them like an annoyed mother just made it more hilarious. It was almost too much for her to bear, making her bite the inside of her cheek to avoid a mirthful outburst. She still choked slightly on her building laughter and Yomo sat up beside her, blinking and coughing into his fist as he futilely tried to fix his appearance to an acceptable level upon realizing she was witness to his drunken disorder. 

Kanna put a finger to her lips and passed him a glass of water with a wide smile. Yomo's averted his eyes and chugged it down quickly before splashing the remnants on his face and shaking his head like a dog. It just made him look more ridiculous, his hair puffing out in all directions like dandelion fluff, and spattered water droplets all over the clean mahogany bar counter. Itori's head snapped in their direction and she stomped over, leaving Uta to mutter something about annoyed cats and chuckle as he watched her turn on his friend.

"Really you two, if you wanted to drink so badly why didn't you just come here? Now you just embarrassed yourselves by wandering through the streets at three in the morning!" Itori ranted, grabbing a wet cloth and swiping irritably at the bar. Kanna backed up, content to stay quiet and watch the fallout of the (clearly well-rehearsed) argument. Yomo pinched his nose and looked away as he apologized, staring at the wall as the flush on his cheeks deepened. It was rather adorable to see him chastened.

Itori grabbed the open bottle of bloodwine and stashed it in the fridge again, declaring that they had all had quite enough alcohol for one night. Kaneki blinked as Itori stepped closer to swipe at the counter again and then stopped, the older woman raising an eyebrow at her and scenting the air. Vermillion eyebrows drew together as she inhaled again before circling Kanna where she stood, and the two men turned to stare in confusion.

"Is there something wrong?" She asked, a bit unnerved by the sudden examination of her scent. Itori apparently reach a conclusion and let loose a small 'aah' of realization, pursing her lips in a small frown and cocking her head to the side.

"It's a good thing you're aware of your condition, I suppose," Itori said, eying her with concern. What? What was she talking about? Her condition? "You're a bit young for it, but to each their own. How far along are you?" The ghoul asked, leaning forwards across the bar to stare into her eyes with an unusually serious expression. Kanna was officially lost.

"How far along? What are you talking about?" She said, feeling a touch of anxiety as she drew back on instinct. She felt the conflicting urges to flee in the other direction and to snark at Itori in challenge, which made no sense. Itori wasn't threatening her, in fact she seemed almost worried about her wellbeing, and they were on quite friendly terms from their increasing interactions.

"Well...the baby, of course," Itori stated, frowning even more deeply. "Did you not realize? You're definitely pregnant, I can smell the hormones on you, though they're still pretty weak at the moment."

Everyone went completely silent and still as Itori's words registered in their minds. Kanna was frozen in place for a long moment, not even breathing or blinking, before sitting down hard in the chair she had just vacated, dropping the glass of water she had been sipping from for the past hour and causing it to shatter on the floor. She didn't respond when Uta and Itori queried about her health, it was as if she was underwater and their voices barely reached her in incomprehensible blurred phrases. Pregnant. How was she pregnant? It should be impossible, and...Eto. Oh _fuck._ **She** was going to be a **MOTHER**. _And **Eto** was the **FATHER.**_

Yomo touched her arm gently, and she realized she was shaking. Kuro took control and quickly apologized to Itori and the others before leaving in a rush. Uta and Itori didn't try to grab her, but she heard all of them start to protest before the slamming door cut their voices off. She ran out the door and switched back with Kanna, and she kept running as fast as she could. Kaneki ran faster than she ever had before in her life, ducking around telephone poles and signs and corners and leaping over a car and a fence and a wall or two, running without a destination in mind. She needed to get away, to be alone and exhaust herself before she hurt someone or broke down like the battered little child she was at heart. 

Kanna ran and ran and ran until she fell to her knees, panting for breath as her limbs burned from built up lactic acid. She ignored the pain as numbness overcame her, and she lay there in the grass, watching the sunrise while hugging her dew-soaked legs to her chest and sobbing hysterically, tears flowing down her cheeks. What was she going to do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *18:00=6:00 PM in military time/24-hour standard. Japan uses both the 12 and 24 hour clocks interchangeably.
> 
> I couldn't resist throwing in drunken Yomo and Uta. We know that Yomo, Uta, and Itori have been drinking buddies for years after that conversation the first time Kaneki went to Helter Skelter, and lightweight Yomo with messy hair is hilarious, as is giggling hipster Uta. I needed something funny and cute to break up the drama a bit, and what better way! (I also kind of ship them a teensy bit, shhh~) 
> 
> Now that Kaneki's pregnancy is kind of public-ish knowledge, shit is going to hit the fan as more people find out. Expect a lot of drama and angst next time. Kaneki is going to hear about the ghoul in the rabbit mask slaying investigators next time, and I interrupted Nico on purpose. I'm following the manga loosely already, and his words on the Owl's identity will still come up later on.
> 
> Next time we see the reactions from Anteiku and Kaneki's gang, we run into the CCG again (lots of Hide!), and we get a peek at Aogiri and what they're up to.
> 
> By the way, BotO has reached 1000+ views as if this afternoon! Also, congrats to KanekiCrepes23 for the 50th Kudo! Thank you so much sweetheart! And thanks to everyone else who gave kudos, commented, bookmarked, or even just read this.
> 
> I'm so very grateful that you all like this so much, I'm still new at writing in English, and this is the longest thing I have ever written in my life. This is almost novel length now (the average novel is between 35k and 100k words long), and the fact that it has taken less than three weeks to write is a bit astonishing for me. Getting so much positive attention is unexpected but so so so very welcome. I love you all for being absolutely amazing and supportive!


	7. Admittance and Recognition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, I had family stuff come up. I edited and added details to the previous chapters, so if something referenced in the future confuses you then it might be good to reread to make sure you remember the new details—they're important.
> 
> In this chapter, we have a sibling heart-to-heart confessional and Hide makes his first appearance! I reference events from the TG novels, so if you aren't familiar with them there's a little bit that might confuse you with Hide.

Hinami woke up in the pre-dawn quiet of a crisp March morning, cocooned in a large and fluffy comforter on top of her adoptive sister's bed. She breathed in gusts of air inundated with Kaneki's scent, comforting her up until she noticed that her sister wasn't sharing the bed and her scent was staler than usual. _What?_ Had she not returned last night? But...she could smell Banjou, and he didn't smell of significant distress, so her sister might just be out on an errand, or she slept over with someone else?

Even as that last thought crossed her mind she discarded it. Kaneki was too tense and (reasonably) paranoid to sleep comfortably anywhere besides her own bedroom, which guaranteed safety and privacy for her. Hinami had only ever seen her sister sleep at Anteiku or here, and presumably she slept in her old apartment from before she was kidnapped. Anywhere else her sister was constantly on guard and unable to rest properly, and even Anteiku had her more guarded than before, especially when Touka-nee was around.

If she hadn't returned yet but Banjou wasn't worried, it probably wasn't a big deal....she'd been visiting Itori-san, perhaps she stayed late and went out on errands without sleeping. Yes. That made sense, her sister wasn't reckless enough to go somewhere dangerous alone and she could protect herself better than anyone else in their group. Kaneki was strong and smart, she wouldn't leave her alone...if she could help it.

The young ghoul sighed despairingly, sitting up and clutching the comforter tightly. She had never used to have such negative and awful thoughts as these, but then she had to move to a new and strange Ward for her safety and her father died, shortly followed by her mother. They had both promised to always be with her, to protect and love her for as long as they lived, and now they were both dead and gone, with desecrated graves and their kagune, so long unused for the sake of peace and normality, had been warped into weapons of murder by the Doves. 

She didn't witness the death of her father (sweet, kind, and silly father who played games and told bad jokes to make her giggle), but her mother (gentle, loving, patient mother who read her stories and taught her everything she knew) died in front of her. Even with Kaneki covering her eyes, she still heard and smelled how the inspector decapitated her mother with that abominable quinque, the last remnant of her father, and casually dismissed her murder as killing scum. She could never forgive or forget that horrific injustice, or the mock tragedy he made by trying to kill her and Touka with the last mementos of her parents.

Hinami wasn't alone, she had more friends and family than ever before, but she still missed them. The teenager even resented them at times and felt guilty for it. Her mother and father had tried their best to give her a good and happy life in an unfair and brutal world, and she should try to remember the good years she had, not rail at the injustice. They would want her to be happy. But it was hard, and when her sister was gone from her side, she couldn't help but think thoughts of what would happen should Kanna-nee not return from her next excursion. 

Would she smell her on a ghoul that had killed and eaten her? Would Banjou and the trio come back with blood and bruises and the news that she was killed or captured! Would they all perish or be thrown in chains and torn into for information by Aogiri or the CCG? Would she run to track her scent only to see an investigator holding a briefcase that opened to display a quinque created from her beautiful, deadly rinkaku? These possible scenarios danced through her nightmares and her waking hours, and sometimes she found herself she was shaking and sobbing her eyes out like a newborn baby, clutching her big sister's pillow and inhaling gusts of her calming scent to memorize the nuances of her smell so she could never ever forget.

Eventually she could see the soft light heralding sunrise begin to highlight the city skyline, and the young girl uncoiled the sheets and comforter that trapped her limbs, rising and padding on quiet feet to her own bedroom to get dressed. She was still the only one awake and most likely would remain the only one awake for a few more hours, so she stayed quieter than a mouse as she slipped on a sweater dress and leggings, padding downstairs with bare feet and fixing herself breakfast in the still quiet of early morning. 

Iced coffee from the fridge and a few slices of smoked meat were good enough for a light breakfast, though she'd probably be hungry again later. Hinami contemplated the thought of cooking pseudo-bacon and drinking human milk with a small smile, remembering when Tsukiyama had prepared a milkshake and Kanna-nee had given it to her. Sweet, thick, and rich human milk, shredded ice, and a touch of fine-ground bone powder to replace malt...it was delicious. It was a shame that Kaneki hadn't even tried to taste it.

The memory of her sister's strained smile and the subtle traces of nausea in her scent as she handed over the glass made her think of something that had been bothering her for a while now. Kaneki had eaten human meat before the Aogiri disaster happened, though infrequently—the "sugarcubes" of crumbled bone marrow that the manager gave her were what she usually consumed on a daily basis, combined with coffee and water. Kaneki's complete aversion to human products was strange and new, becoming more obvious and unsettling as the days came. Ghoul meat was supposed to be disgusting and required higher amounts to be eaten to stay healthy than human meat, so why was her body rejecting the mere scent of human products to the point of illness?

Hinami moved Loser's cage from the coffee table back onto the stand, removing the cloth drape that kept the cockatiel quiet and resting. The little bird woke quickly, croaking softly and ruffling his feathers as he stretched his wings out. She giggled a bit and opened the door of his cage, letting the happy bird perch on her fingers as she petted him, and he greeted her with a low whistle and a bright "hello!" She was his favorite person, and he let her know it, cooing and crooning and being very affectionate as she gently combed through his feathers with her fingertips to help him get rid of loose ones, as he was starting to moult his winter layers with the changing of the season.

The teen eventually returned him to his cage after letting him fly around a bit and playing with him, as it was time to change his food and water. She was in the middle of filling up his food tray with seeds and trying to teach him a new phrase (pretty bird) when her sharp nose picked up Kaneki as the older girl approached, walking up the road three blocks from the apartment at a slow pace. Hinami smiled widely, happy that her sister was fine and returning after all, but the smile soon dropped from her face.

Kaneki smelled like blood, ghouls, and alcohol, which was expected as she had been at Itori's bar, but she also smelled like fear, bile, and damp clothing, which caused Hinami to pause. Why would she be damp? Had she been in a fight and landed in water? And why was she afraid? What happened? Did she need help? Was she injured? Followed? Was she sick? Was that why she wasn't eating human anymore, because being formerly human made her get a disease from eating her own species?

Hinami almost slammed the door of Loser's cage shut before catching it at the last moment to prevent the sound waking up the others. The initial flood of panic receded as logic kicked in, cooling her head and calming her down to an acceptable level of cautious concern. Kaneki was walking just fine and the blood wasn't her own, maybe the fear belonged to someone she chased off earlier at Itori's or while she was coming home. She shouldn't jump to conclusions, because as the talk show host she watched last night had said, "assuming makes an ass of 'u' and me."

Hinami took several deep breaths before slowly sitting down on the couch, listening as Kaneki's footsteps came closer. She faintly registered other footsteps on the street, belonging to human neighbors and passerby, but no scent of ghouls or of quinque-carrying Doves registered, discounting the "followed" theory almost entirely, because no normal human would have the necessary interest or ability to follow her sister for long, and her sister would never lead pursuers to their safe space even if she was injured. The blood she smelled was old fermented human blood, so a fight was out too. So why did she sense such an intense note of wrongness?

Kaneki unlocked and relocked the door, removing her shoes almost silently and padding across the carpeted floor in her socks. The scents of old rain, crushed grass, and saltwater (was it sweat? Tears? Both?) emanated from her, mingled with her natural sour-sweet candy scent and the remnants of Helter Skelter, and when the white-haired girl rounded the corner into the half-kitchen Hinami noticed drying grass stains on her nice new clothing. Kaneki seemed to be lost in a daze, her visible eye clouded over and her hair and clothing rumpled and damp. It was unnerving to see considering how meticulously neat the young woman always was.

"Kanna-nee...good morning," Hinami whispered, and Kanna's eye shot up as she pinpointed her location before a tiny smile dragged laboriously across her exhausted face.

"Good morning, Hinami," Kanna replied, her voice hoarse and cracking slightly. The white-haired woman grabbed a glass from the shelf, filling it with tap water before chugging it down, sighing, and refilling it. Hinami hopped up and fetched a can of iced coffee for her to drink, and her sister accepted the can with another small smile that faded quickly as she flopped despondently onto the couch. The sheer amount of stress and exhaustion radiating off of her was distressing, and Hinami sat at her side, wanting nothing more than to cuddle against her and provide comfort but recognizing that Kaneki needed space at the moment.

They sat in strained silence for several minutes as they drank from their coffee cans, neither quite ready to speak and bring on the inevitable tension, but Hinami finished her coffee and set it on the coffee table, and Kanna let out a long sigh before doing the same with her half-full can. She remained in the same position, facing the wall, but she turned her newly uncovered eye towards the younger ghoul and met her gaze.

"I didn't mean to be out so long. I apologize for making you worry," she murmured, her gaze steady and sad. Hinami nodded, not wanting to open her mouth and burst with a thousand questions when she could tell that Kaneki wasn't finished with her explanation yet. "I went to see Itori last night, and someone who used to spend time with Aogiri Tree showed up when I was finishing for the night."

"Oh." So perhaps her suspicions of a fight were correct in a way, even if no scent from exchanged blows was present on Kanna's skin. "What...what happened, onee-chan?" She asked, her brows furrowing in concern. Her sister yawned softly behind her upraised hand before she responded, turning to face her fully with a somber and all too honest gaze. 

"He told me something important. But it was what happened after he left that..." She trailed off, shuddering and squeezing her eyes shut. Hinami rested a hand on her knee and squeezed, her heart in her throat. There was nothing she hated more than the knowledge that her sister was hurting, and the little sound Kaneki made in response assured her that her efforts were appreciated. She breathed in deeply and mumbled something in a jumbled rush, and it was just indistinct enough that Hinami almost thought she had misheard it, drawing back to stare at Kaneki in confused shock. 

"I'm...pregnant," Kaneki repeated, resignation heavy in her tone. Hinami almost choked on air when she processed what she had just heard. _What? Since when? For how long? Who?_ The questions built up inside her like a mighty river against an obstructing dam, but the aura of misery emitting from Kanna had her stay silent, grabbing her hand and rubbing soothing circles into the back of her palm with her thumb. "I...I counted, and I-I'm...about twelve weeks along now, so...it's certain."

"What do you plan to do?" Hinami's voice wavered as she spoke, still reeling from shock at the announcement but trying valiantly to adjust.

"I don't know." Kanna paused, breathing in and out through her nose and blinking slowly as she stared at the blank television screen across the room. "I didn't even think it was possible, because....hybrids are almost always...sterile, infertile, somehow....unable to reproduce in nature." She sighed, pulling Hinami so that she was lying half on top of her, tucking the smaller girl's head into the dip of her shoulder and lightly carding her fingers through thick umber locks. They lay in silence once more, this time more companionable but still rife with tension and unanswered questions.

"I'm not sure what to do," she admitted, her voice barely audible. Hinami hummed lowly and wound her skinny arms around her torso in a comfortably tight embrace, clutching her close and warming her in body and spirit from the affectionate closeness. "I...I didn't intend for it to happen, and I'm young, too young for this." Kanna sank further into the couch, resting her own head atop Hinami's and absently noting the mixing of their contrasting hair from the corner of her eye.

"Onee-chan, what...what about Aogiri? And...the doctor?" Hinami asked in a small voice, turning in her hold so that their faces were inches apart again. She was obviously upset, and she shook slightly against her, the effort to vocalize her serious thoughts taxing the shy girl. Neither of them really wanted this conversation, but they knew it was necessary. Hinami had been a doctor's daughter, and she was a ghoul growing up in a world against her and everyone she loved. She was much less naive than some thought, and it showed in moments like these. 

"They need to be dealt with. The sooner the better." The immediate response proved that the lull of shock and confusion could be pierced, undisguised venom leaking through as Kaneki practically snarled. "If they find out about this, which...they probably will eventually, it'll be even more dangerous."

"I...I know you'd be a good mother, b-because you're patient, and gentle, and sweet, and smart, and strong, and you break up arguments, and you take care of us, and—" Hinami cut herself off, as she realized she had started babbling. Kanna waited patiently for her to continue, "So...a kid would be lucky to have you as a mother, like I'm grateful for having you as my sister. But...I know that there are ways to...end a pregnancy, if the mother doesn't want the baby or can't support it. Father...he mentioned it once. Will you do that?" Hinami waited with bated breath for an answer, anxiety curling in her gut.

"I don't even know if I can safely....end it," the older girl admitted. "Human medicine does almost nothing to ghouls, and trying to remove it physically might not work. I regenerate so fast, and it might...it might have inherited that from me. I don't know." The thought of her sister having to have a kagune driven through her to abort the baby made Hinami swallow dryly, tears stinging her eyes. Even if her sister could heal, it would still hurt, and it could cause spinal damage or other problems if it missed.

"I know it's a bad time, but it might be the only chance I have to be a mother. A part of me wants to keep it, even when I know it's dangerous. But...maybe." Kanna lowered her head, stark bangs hiding her eyes from view. "I'll talk to the others when they wake up."

The two of them stayed entwined on the couch for a long while afterwards, listening to the breathing of their friends as they slept and the sounds of the city stirring gradually to life, cars and birds and a few people walking and talking and moving about like scurrying ants. As it was only around 6:30 AM, they ended up dozing for a time, but soon the noise level started to raise, and they were both a bit grateful for the partial soundproofing of the walls that helped block the full brunt of the city's noise.

At around eight in the morning the neighbor's car backfired, and Banjou jerked awake with a loud snort, falling out of bed as he sat up and got tangled in the sheets. The loud 'thump' of him hitting the ground woke up the trio, with Sante slurring out swear words and getting kicked by Ichimi, leasing to a whispered argument. Jiro groaned loudly, activating her bikaku kagune to smack them both before rolling over and going back to sleep with a muttered insult towards their clumsy and lovable leader. 

Banjou and Ichimi joined them in the kitchen minutes later, grumbling and groaning and proving that they definitely weren't morning people. It was a fairly typical morning for their odd, ragtag little group of misfits, but it made Hinami giggle and brought a softer expression to Kaneki's face. They exchanged a long look, and then they both moved off of the couch yo began their morning routines, getting ready for the day in a quiet and restrained manner. Soon enough they'd all be up and awake, Tsukiyama would arrive on schedule, and then...then it would be time.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The CCG was a cold place in more ways than one. They blasted the air conditioning until it was frigid year round, and perhaps that explained some of the attitude the workers held, but not all. Even when removed from arctic level temperatures, most CCG employees were nominally polite but not all that friendly and just this side of outright asshole. So many morbid, broken people who lost too much, beckoning harsh and jaded beyond redemption. They lived as husks of self-proclaimed justice, lost in their own troubles and leaking blood from unhealed wounds of the heart, mind, and soul.

The members of the CCG covered scars and flaws of all sorts with neutral and professional fake smiles, well-crafted masks hiding wells full of hatred, fear, despair, trauma, loss, and greed all twisted together and fermenting. So many people hating and scheming and wanting, wanting, wanting, shoved together by varied goals into an organization so desperate for effective personnel that they turned a blind eye to the injustices wrought by their own. Who cared if a few ghouls (even non-violent ones) were brutally torn to pieces by investigators or experimented on by doctors in ways that violated the Geneva convention laws six ways to Sunday? Ghouls were monsters, scum, lower than sewer sludge, not human and deserving of what fates they received.

It was the worst sort of developing ground, and only the naive and sheltered members too absorbed in their own work and goals of justice and positivity could miss the filthy underbelly of the immoral beast, blacker than tar and oozing with potential destruction just waiting to raze lives and livelihoods to nothingness if they looked too closely. Gazing into that abyss was enough to put a permanent chill in your bones even when you left behind the ridiculous air conditioning and the people with ice-cold shattered hearts.

They really needed counseling at the very least, and more than a few of the investigators, scientists, and general employees should rightly be out of their jobs and locked away for the sanity and safety of the people. They hid their darkness in excuses based in prejudice and long-known hatred, which was encouraged here in this den of serpents that made their money by hunting and killing ghouls. After all, if they were focusing their depravity on ghouls, it was no harm to the human public—ghouls had no rights and were seen as lower than beasts, rabid monsters deserving of nothing less than hellish torment and thorough extermination.

Even as a lowly part-time errand boy, Hideyoshi Nagachika had seen and heard things that turned his stomach in the few months he had spent time here. It took the thought of Kaneki, his best friend and sister in all but blood, to make him swallow the bile in his throat and soldier on. Being called into Marude's office had made his palms sweat and stomach roil, and it took all of his considerable acting ability to avoid showing how terrified he was. Hide knew that it was risky to get associated with the CCG, but the thought of the consequences if they found out...well, being fired would be the least of his worries.

It was a real stroke of luck that he was assigned to work under Akira and Amon. They were agreeable enough to get along with, and they were also assigned to the case involving the reason for Hide joining the CCG. The moment that he saw the pencil sketch of Eyepatch provided by Amon he recognized her, even with most of her face covered he could recognize Kaneki anywhere. The Frankenstein's monster-ish mask was familiar too, he had seen a glimpse of it once when fetching Kanna a book from her bag while she was cooking them dinner in his apartment. It was just like her to end up using such a freaky thing, she had always had a taste for the macabre and morbid.

The files showed a pattern of rumored and confirmed appearances of Eyepatch starting in September and most recently including the infamous restaurant massacre and a trail of cannibalized ghoul corpses across all the aboveground Wards in Tokyo. Hide sighed internally, knowing that Kanna was probably going after the worst sorts of ghouls and feeding on them instead of taking the healthier route of scavenging human corpses she had initially followed. He'd heard ugly rumors about what happened when ghouls went cannibal, and her hybrid status might exacerbate the scenario even further.

The notation of a startling change from black to white hair in the file almost made Hide choke as he recalled planting the tracker on Jason and hearing the desperate screams and pleas of his best friend. The audio function had ceased working after a week from blood getting into the mechanism, but it was more than enough for him to know the gist of what went on in the sadistic ghoul's hobby room. He could only imagine how much worse it became in the next week of torture, and the sound of her raw voice still haunted his nightmares.

He had to commend himself on his acting skills. He wasn't crying or otherwise revealing how upset he was, keeping a serious and composed face as he memorized the file's contents, and once he had memorized the files for Eyepatch, Fueguchi, Rabbit, and the Gourmet he even forced himself to crack a few weak jokes with a small (fake, so very fake) smile on his face. Akira rolled her eyes at him, Amon raised an eyebrow (just what was up with his eyebrows anyway?), Seidou snorted in the corner, Houji and Shinohara sighed quietly, and Suzuya started giggling, though when Hide glanced at the albino boy he was occupying himself with an explicitly gory horror manga in the corner and eating candy.

He had a discussion with the others on the assumed amount of time that the ghoul gang led by Eyepatch had been active and managed to unobtrusively squeeze out extra details. Seidou found her and the Gourmet to be terrifying monsters, Akira wanted to make quinque material out of Eyepatch's rinkaku (the very idea almost made him vomit), Suzuya only cared about the opportunities for fighting and whined about not getting his new quinque yet (Hide was vindictively glad that Yamori was dead and butchered), and the oldest two investigators considered them a menace to be eliminated. Amon stayed silent and had to be pulled out of a daydream, muttering something under his breath about murderers, puzzles, and 'Alice' that made Akira stare at him.

 _Interesting._ Amon was the only investigator on record to run into Kaneki as Eyepatch, and yet he didn't seem to hate her, be disgusted by her, or even fear her, despite the fact that she had beaten him singlehandedly and repeatedly proved her strength by taking out ghouls all over Tokyo. Perhaps he was a potential ally? _No._ Amon was still an investigator, still someone who would willingly harm Kanna, and for all that Hide liked him and genuinely respected him—he'd heard stories of the Utsumi case and other feats against cruel and dangerous ghouls that Amon had undertaken—he couldn't afford to trust him, not with this.

The road to saving his lost friend was already long as it was, but the knowledge that he was essentially in this alone was discouraging. It was a good thing that he was used to waiting for Kanna to come to him, like the time her aunt threw away her father's books, or when she was applying for college and her aunt tossed aside her acceptance letters. He had spent most of his life helping her out of bad situations that weren't of her own making, and while she did take some active part in this one, Hide knew that she missed him—the longer hair that the blurry photograph from a week ago showed that she had kept at least one promise, waiting for him to complete the pact of haircuts they made at twelve. 

Even though Hide he knew that she was leaving him out of her current life in order to keep him safe, that she didn't want him to fear or hate her for the changes in her nature, he refused to forget or sit back and do nothing. What kind of friend would he be if he left her alone? A real shitty one, to borrow Nishiki-senpai's phrasing. Nagachika Hideyoshi was not a quitter, and he had always done his damnedest to help Kanna. It wasn't her fault that life kept dealing her bad lots, and any difference he could make at all was better than nothing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you couldn't tell, that was Kanna and Kuro switching off during the scene with Hinami. Kuro switches back with Kanna when they start talking, and because Hinami doesn't know about Kaneki's DID she just sees it as a shift in attitude and aura. 
> 
> Explaining this now so that no one gets the wrong idea: the aura thing is not stereotypical anime aura sensing. It's Hinami noticing differences in body language (Kuro is less assertive and quieter, so she displays submissive and restrained/cautious body language), speech patterns, and smelling hormones and such. Humans and other animals project pheromones and other such things into the air around us through our sweat that reveal our emotional states, it makes sense that ghouls with sharp noses like Hinami can smell them.
> 
> If you're curious about the Utsumi case, it happens in Heat Haze, chapter one of the second TG light novel. Basically, during the six month timeskip in canon Amon went to the eighth ward shortly after the Eleventh Ward battle+ Cochlea breakout in December to investigate an ongoing serial killer case that was connected to ghouls. I won't go into more detail in case you want to read it yourselves, but the conclusion of said story is probably a bit obvious from what Hide already referenced.
> 
> Next chapter we get reactions from Kaneki's gang and Anteiku. We'll also get a glimpse of Kanou and what he's up to. The fat is frying hotter and a lot of people will be getting burnt soon.
> 
> We're nearly to 75 kudos and 1,500 views now! Thank you all so much for your support and attention, I'm glad that my first real English fanfiction has gotten such good reception from you all.


	8. Disclosure and Declaration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This time around, Kanna tells the gang what's up, and we get a glimpse of Kanou and the Clowns. Prepare for trouble ahead...

In her nineteen years of life, Kaneki Kanna had had to do many difficult and emotionally compromising things. However, this particular task was possibly one of the most daunting conversations she would have in her lifespan. Just how was she to phrase her words correctly to communicate her mother-to-be status to the others? If she just came out and said it they might even mistake it for a joke. Well, perhaps not a joke, but...there would be questions that she had no desire to answer. The thought alone nearly had her hyperventilating.

Kanna knew for certain that she was pregnant—after the initial breakdown on the bank of the Kanda river was over with, she had headed to a pharmacy on her way home through the Thirteenth Ward. She had taken advantage of the relative crowding and eccentricity of Shibuya to blend in as just another teenager planning to skip class and wander Harajuku, her white hair and rumpled formal clothing nothing in comparison to a yawning gang of bright orange Ganguro girls that passed her by and several loitering cyber-kei boys with sky-high teased hair dyed in bright neons. 

Determined to get it over with and confirm to herself whether Itori's statement was true, Kanna discreetly purchased four different pregnancy tests as insurance. The young woman tested all of them in a public restroom and found that every single one came back with a positive result, much to her growing sense of numb acceptance. After washing herself up a bit she headed for the subway to go home, carefully disposing of the incriminating test sticks in different trash cans and focusing on the thought of getting home to rest and change her clothing. Even though she didn't sleep to rid herself of the exhaustion, coffee and Hinami's comforting company provided a balm to her and helped her to stay focused.

Hinami sat beside her and squeezed her hand, and Kanna squeezed back lightly, taking in a deep and slow breath through her nose. She could do this. Hinami understood the implications of her being pregnant but hadn't confronted her about the father or the circumstances of the fetus's conception, and the others could be fended off and placated with some effort. She had no intention of revealing the father's identity anytime soon, if ever.

Breakfast had just been finished a few minutes before, and Tsukiyama had arrived with a fresh bouquet of multicolored azaleas. The Gourmet was subtly eying her and Hinami with a contemplative frown, most likely because they were both oddly subdued and touchy. Seeing the two of them with serious faces in the morning was very much unusual, Kanna supposed, even if the sight of them hugging or otherwise taking comfort in casual physical contact was not.

Everyone was sitting down now and shooting glances her way, obviously having realized that something was up and that she was to be the bringer of news. It didn't make it easier, but at least they were calm and all together here and now. And they were very unlikely to start a physical fight of some sort here in the kitchen, especially with Hinami present. It was time, she knew that it would be best to get it over with as quickly and smoothly as possible.

"Everyone, I...I have an announcement to make," she said, her voice almost wavering as she swallowed dryly. Her comrades all snapped to attention, observing her carefully as they waited for her to continue. Hinami rubbed her thumb over the back of her hand and Kanna managed to smile weakly in response. "We're going to have to take a...break from our activities soon. Not today, but in...in the next month or two." The trio made noises of confusion and Banjou dropped his jaw in shock, while Tsukiyama nearly spat out his coffee, his eyes widened in surprise. 

"Why are we stopping? Isn't it important to keep looking for that Doctor and cutting into Aogiri Tree's activities?" Jiro asked, her (for once) uncovered face pinched in bafflement. Ichimi and Sante agreed with her quietly, and Banjou was still sputtering slightly from incomprehension. Kanna drew in another deep breath, trying to calm her racing heartbeat, and forged onwards.

"We'll still be working to take them down, but the timeframe has been...compressed," she clarified, biting her lip slightly. "We need to do what we can for now before drawing back, because soon I'll—" she cut herself off and paused again, trying to decide how she should phrase her next statement. "I will be...indisposed."

" _*Excusez-moi,_ but why would you be unable to continue? You are not—" Tsukiyama began, looking as if he was searching for the right words. "Kaneki-chan, surely you're not...ill, are you?" He asked, frowning and leaning backwards in his chair. Kanna almost wanted to snap at him but restrained herself, knowing that the question was legitimate. And in a manner of speaking, he was correct.

"But ghouls can't get sick!" Banjou protested, standing up from his chair and glaring at Tsukiyama for suggesting such a thing. Kanna sighed heavily and pinched her nose. A ridiculous fight was really _not_ what she needed to deal with, especially now of all times.

"You could call it that, I suppose," she muttered, closing her eyes and shifting in discomfort. Banjou choked and sat down heavily, and Tsukiyama went still, his heartbeat increasing suddenly. Was he afraid of the possibility of losing his perfect meal? No, never mind that. This conversation really was just too awkward for her to complete with ease. She could feel how hard they were all staring at her, their gazes almost burning holes through her, and she opened her eyes and met them with as much firmness as she could muster.

"Is it a problem because you're a hybrid, then?" Sante enquired, swirling his coffee cup idly as he contemplated this development. Kanna shook her head.

"Me being a hybrid should have prevented the...problem, by all rights," she replied, and the confusion and tension in the air only thickened. Hinami squeezed her hand again, and finally she couldn't stand it any longer and decided that she might as well cut to the heart of the matter. 

"I'm pregnant."

The words hung in the air for almost an entire minute without verbal interruption, though everyone did still react. Banjou slammed his hand down and cracked the table, Ichimi fell off of his chair, Jiro dropped her chopsticks on the ground, and Sante did an impressive spit take, spraying the tabletop, Tsukiyama, and Banjou with a mouthful of hot fresh coffee. Tsukiyama froze in place, not even reacting to the ruination of his cream-colored suit jacket by coffee stain.

In the next moment everything shifted, and Banjou was spouting question after question as Sante and Jiro cleaned up the mess, Ichimi picked himself up with a groan, and Tsukiyama remained in his chair, shuddering slightly and looking like an odd combination of constipated and traumatized. Kanna would have laughed at the ridiculous sight if not for the seriousness of the situation and her own part in it. 

In the end, Tsukiyama provided the "stop button" by hissing out the fastest series of invectives she had ever heard, alternating between French, Japanese, German, and what she thought might be Italian or Spanish. Everyone went quiet and stared at him as he kept going until he ran out of breath after more than two minutes and then coughed, the eccentric ghoul gulping down his coffee in an unusually undignified manner and carefully composing himself once more.

" _*Nique ta mère! Nique ta mère!_ " Loser mimicked him a moment later, repeating the new phrase very loudly and enthusiastically. Hinami giggle nervously, reaching over to shush the cockatiel. Tsukiyama gritted his teeth and pointedly coughed into his hand, his knuckles white from the clenching of his fists. All was silent for the next ten seconds until Tsukiyama waved at them to continue, avoiding their eyes with a strained neutral expression and a faint flush on his cheekbones. They all turned to face Kaneki once more, though thankfully some of the tension had dissipated from the bird's ridiculous antics.

"How did it...who was it?" Jiro whispered, peering through the curtain of her bangs. Kanna winced internally, and Kuro shifted closer to the surface, pressing back Shiro and murmuring encouragement to Kanna. The others all shifted as well, curious. Sante eyed Tsukiyama, which was a bit amusing but definitely not right, and Tsukiyama himself stared at the wall behind her head with narrowed eyes.

"Not someone you'd know," Kanna stated, which was technically true—they had had minimal contact with Eto and Tatara and definitely not any personal interactions, likely not even as much as she had. "And it doesn't matter, because he won't be involved," she bit out, the very thought of the sadistic ghoul finding out that she was carrying his offspring inside her was...terrifying to say the least. What would he do? Hunt her down? Kill her? Forcibly abort the fetus? Capture her? Take her prisoner and snatch the baby away once it was born? He would definitely not leave her be, that much she could tell, and she shuddered to think of the possible reactions he could have.

"Oh...alright, then," Sante replied, running a hand through his hair. He shot Kaneki a considering look, trailing over her stomach briefly before looking sideways at Jiro and then turning his gaze to the front again. Jiro rolled her eyes at him.

"He wants to ask how far along you are," she grunted, kicking her friend in the shin. Sante made a face at her and Ichimi snorted. Banjou just looked curious and worried, keeping focused on Kaneki's face and examining her, taking in her pallor, the leftover scents from the night's events, and straying down to examine her flat, muscular stomach for a tell-tale bump.

"About...twelve weeks," Kanna stated, wincing a little. The trio and Banjou all looked more than a little off-put at this announcement, especially when Hinami counted out loud on her fingers at her side. Exactly twelve weeks ago she had fought off Jason and freed them from the cage where Jason had locked up the members of "Anti-Aogiri."

"Was it Jason?" Ichimi asked. Kanna promptly bit her tongue and swore internally in ways that would have turned the air in the room neon blue, feeling Shiro snap to focus and rise up inside her in an attempt to take the helm. The man almost squeaked at the sudden flare of bloodlust, but instinctively leaned back in a submissive posture, displaying his throat and shrinking into his chair. Jiro and Sante simultaneously elbowed him hard, and he curled inwards a bit, trying to protect his vulnerable sides.

"No." Kanna almost spat the word, her voice laden with ice-cold venom. She had to take a deep breath and wrestle down Shiro. Unfortunately, she couldn't fend off the briefest flashback to rough hands and bloody pliers, piecemeal memories of a red-stained checker pattern and howling laughter from behind that infamous white hockey mask. No. That was the one line that that fiend had not crossed with her in the time she was imprisoned in his disgusting "hobby room," which she was immensely thankful for. The very thought of Jason being the father almost made her violently ill, though the knowledge that Eto was the father wasn't any consolation.

"I...I smelled him on you before, so I wasn't..." Ichimi trailed off, clearly regretting his slip of the tongue.

"That was from my fight with him and our...extended contact," Kaneki muttered, not wanting to add that the mingled scent was most likely from her eating him. Hinami didn't need to hear that. "As it is, I'm...not very far along, so if it becomes necessary I can...end it at this stage. If not, then I have a month or so until I'll have lost mobility and my health will be more seriously affected." At least, she thought so. She had never had more than an average interest in sex for a teenage girl from a conservative family, and she had never been around a pregnant woman that she knew personally in her lifetime.

She wasn't...showing...yet, but it wouldn't be long until a bump became visible, if she recalled correctly. Her last sexual education class had been in her first year of high school and was very embarrassing, causing her to subconsciously push away the memories. The pictures, diagrams, and videos that her teacher had utilized were things that she would honestly prefer not to remember, and the reactions of her fellow students had only made the class harder to handle. What she did remember was inconclusive and probably not reliable, especially considering that she was now a hybrid ghoul.

Kaneki needed to find books on pregnancy, a subject she had never been very interested in. It was all out embarrassing how little she knew. And odd as it was, Hinami most likely knew things on the ghoul side that books on human pregnancy didn't cover. Knowing her options was the best bet she had currently.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kurona and Nashiro did not enjoy the company of their charge, Madame A. She was whiny, overly talkative, vain, vapid, and quick to blame others for her own mistakes. These traits that were less than endearing separate and an absolute irritation when combined together in one person. If it weren't for her valuable connections to wealthy and influential ghouls and their Papa's insistence, they would have left her to the non-existent mercy of their older sister without a second thought.

Currently they were in their beloved home, reunited after a week apart. They both exchanged a bored glance as they walked away from Madame A, wondering how long he was going to have them stay with the ridiculous woman. She still had money and connections in the ghoul world, but wasn't using them all that much lately after the incident with their big sister at the Seventh Ward restaurant. It made things all the more dull, and it now caused the two of them to be separated, one at a time guarding the idiotic female ghoul and one remaining behind with their adoptive father.

Kanou wasn't aboveground when the twins had arrived with Madame A in tow, and so they instructed the woman to remain in the upstairs waiting room, which was currently occupied with one of Kanou's Clown associates. Souta, the Clown, was reading the fraud Ogura's "Book of Ghoul Dismantling" and snickering at all the inaccuracies and wild theories inside, especially regarding the escapades of his own Clown Mask gang. He waved them on with a cheerful laugh and starts teasing the nervous and slightly affronted Madame as they headed to the basement to find their adoptive father. Good riddance, let the idiot deal with the creepy clown.

Descending into the basement was always slightly disconcerting, with the RC Cell walls pulsing oddly and contrasting with the steel and brick that composed the actual structure. It was always cold and smelled of blood, water, and antiseptic, but that much had never changed in all the tears they had lived in the house. Even in the days of their birth parents, ghoul corpses and other such things were kept down in the basement, being continually processed in order to make and repair quinques for CCG investigators in need. The same CCG investigators they had helped for years had betrayed and murdered them both in cold blood to cover their own tracks when a scandal came to light. 

The events of that horrid night were permanently engraved on their memories, buried but not forgotten. The murderers burst into their mansion late at night, pretending to be ghouls and leaving Kurona and Nashiro to watch in terrified silence as the crimson blood of their beloved parents decorated the floor and walks, splashing onto their pretty white lace dresses in grisly patterns. Even now, years later and many times stronger, the memories haunted them and filled them with rage and despair. If it weren't for their Papa...he had kept his promise, found the responsible investigators and had them killed and eaten by the failures. A fitting end for monsters, to be devoured by the monsters they once pretended to be.

Kanou had his hands buried in the intestines of a hybrid cadaver when they arrived, and he did not turn to look at them, nodding and gesturing for them to wait. The twins were patient, standing quietly and having a silent conversation of looks and gestures as they had always been prone to doing. The familiar scene was comfortable in a way, Papa quietly busy with his work and the two of them not having to deal with any interruptions as they enjoyed each other's company and a treasured private conversation. 

It was nearly a half hour later that Kanou withdrew his hands and tools from the innards of the corpse. He carefully bagged his fluid-coated gloves for later disposal and removed his facial mask before turning to face them with his typical gentle and genial smile. They bowed at the waist in response before straightening up and beginning their report.

"The Madame A was recently in contact with a servant of the well-known ghoul Big Madame, arranging for attendance of an auction in the Ninth Ward. Aogiri has offered to provide guards at the event in exchange for financial support. The Madame A is nervous about the deal but will likely agree to it," Kurona stated, watching as Kanou noted down the information on a blank clipboard. Once he had finished his shorthand notation he nodded for them to continue, and without missing a beat, Nashiro stepped up and took her turn to speak.

"There has been no sign of Onee-san, Papa," Nashiro said, and Kanou frowned lightly, though he gestured for her to continue. "The Madame A is worried that her connections to The Gourmet, Mr. M.M., will cause her to track her down, but the time gap has allowed her to calm down her alertness and paranoia to a more manageable level. She has been listening and exchanging rumors to learn about Onee-san's whereabouts and activities. The news that Onee-san has been cannibalizing and killing off notorious ghouls has her on high alert and makes her reluctant to leave her hideout for long periods of time."

Kanou remained quiet for a time, brooding and scribbling down notes in shorthand. He ripped the paper free of the pad it was attached to once finished, congratulating them both with another warm smile that made both twins feel happy inside. Even if he didn't always verbalize how pleased he was, knowing that they had pleased their father figure was a treasured moment to achieve. Years without an attempt at affection from anyone but lying beasts or naively misguided CCG instructors had them starved for any sort of positive attention, and they backed quietly in the glow of every word of praise and smile he gave the two of them.

The older man strode to the filing cabinet in the corner and took out a file, shuffling through its contents with meticulous care. A picture of Kaneki Kanna with black hair was visible inside, and he tucked his newly made notes inside before setting it back in the proper section of the files. He then turned back to face them and clapped his hands together.

"Thank you very much for your efforts as of late. Dutiful daughters like yourselves are a treasure," he said, placing a hand on their shoulders and smiling widely. "Kaneki-chan is not as dutiful, though she shall return to our side given time and incentive." Here he paused, stepping back to look down sternly. "She will locate the Madame A son, and when she does you are to abandon her. We have no further need for her once her job as bait is completed, and your sister is clever and thorough. She will extract our location from her easily and then she will be joining our little family at long last."

Kurona and Nashiro remained silent for a moment, nodding obediently while their minds raced from the implications. So, their prodigal sister would be coming to stay with them after all? Their Papa was a generous father for letting her run loose and come to find him on her own, likely wanting her to exercising her intelligence and utilize her resources to determine the extent of her current power and influence for himself.

It was indeed a good method, though not the fastest. Tokyo was a large city, after all, and finding a person who did not let her real name or her true face be widely known was a challenge even when making use of modern technology and information networks. Ghouls as high up as the Madame needed to cover their tracks and have bolt holes in case they were targeted, as being targeted by humans and their fellow ghouls alike was inevitable. It made them harder to track when they hid themselves from the eyes and ears of those who would seek them, and the challenge it provided their sister was in addition to the challenge of avoiding the CCG and Aogiri Tree.

"Now, my beautiful daughters need to take their medicine and eat their meals. Papa will be sad if you two don't stay healthy." The Doctor handed them an assortment of multicolored pills and pointed out two glasses of plain water sitting on a filing cabinet to the side. They both swallowed the pills without complaint and followed behind their Papa as he walked to the room where they are their weekly dinner. Covered dishes awaited them, stewed human meat in a bone broth with salt for the girls and a simple meal of fish, rice, and thin soup for the man. They ate in relative silence, and no small talk was made even after their meal was completed. 

The few dishes were cleared away to be cleaned at a later time, and moments later it was time for Nashiro to leave for the week, passing Nico as the masked ghoul entered the building and walked towards the basement stairs with Souta at his side. Nashiro pursed her lips. She didn't trust the ghouls, nor did her twin, and if they were both here, then it meant that something important was happening. They would find out eventually, but knowing that something important was coming yet not knowing what was to come was a torturous feeling indeed.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nico strode into the main laboratory with the confidence of a runway model, tapping the metal spikes of his fire-engine red stiletto heels against the stone floor and merrily humming a popular love song under his breath. Souta was quieter and more unobtrusive than his flamboyant comrade, sedately following behind with his hands in his pockets. The clacking Nico's heels caught Kanou's attention from where he sat at his desk, and he dismissed Kurona to go read in her room for the night with a genial smile.

Nico greeted her with a wide grin and a wink, his lipstick shimmering brightly in the fluorescent lighting. Souta rolled his eyes behind his mask, knowing that as Kurona wouldn't respond in a friendly manner. She didn't trust them, neither of the twins did, and for good reason too, he had to admit. The young woman eyed them carefully with her single kakugan active as she passed, as cold and reserved towards them as ever. She was a smart one to avoid getting too close.

Nico bounced over to examine the pod where Rize was imprisoned, clicking his tongue in disapproval at the sight of the formidable woman brought so low. For all that Nico was quite happy to play bloody games and was unbothered by brutal physical torture, he had his lines, and Rize was beyond humbled now, half-dead and almost mad from hunger and pain. It was sad to see the proud and vivacious young woman stripped down and caught like a butterfly pinned on a board when by all rights she should be wreaking havoc and enjoying her power and independence, living in the height of her prime without burdens of responsibility.

Souta pointedly coughed into his elbow to draw the older ghoul back to the desk once Kurona was out of earshot. Nico perked up immediately, prancing over and greeting the man enthusiastically.

"Dearest Doctor, I have some very fascinating news regarding sweet little Kaneki-chan, your eldest 'daughter.' Ta-da!" He exclaimed, whipping out a sealed folder from inside his jacket. Kanou accepted it thankfully, finding it to be filled with photographs and notes on Kanna's recent activity. "My lovely friend Itori-chii provided this for a small fee, and I also got the benefit of seeing our renegade princess in the flesh!"

"Oh? That must have been interesting," Souta mused, leaning against the desk and watching the exchange with faint but evident amusement.

"Why, yes indeed. You see, little Kaneki-chan was not pleased to see me, and I had to talk her out of a fight! Thankfully Uta-chii and Ren-chii showed up and distracted her, or things may have turned...bloody." His voice lowered on the last word, and his ever-present smile turned dark and dangerous, like that of a shark longing to sink its teeth into a plump juicy seal. "And even more interesting, it seems that she has a cute little bun in the oven."

Kanou dropped the file on the desk and turned around in his seat to stare at him, and Souta whistled lowly. Nico just giggled, placing a finger to his lips and winking again.

"You really weren't kidding, nee-san. I thought she'd be infertile now due to being a halfie, and yet she's running around with a baby? That's quite the news." Souta cocked his head, glancing at the photos. "Is she showing a baby bump yet, or did you smell it on her?"

"Oh no, the scent was what tipped me off. She smelled absolutely delicious in a new way, and imagine my surprise when I figured out why!"

"Do you know who the father is?" Kanou spike up at last looking almost impatient. It made sense, as her creator and technical father hearing about the pregnancy of his little darling was big news.

"Oh, certainly. I'd recognize that scent anywhere. The One-Eyed Owl is less discrete than most think, though most ghouls really don't bother using their noses right anyway," Nico stated, plopping down in a spare chair. Kanou's eyebrows shot up in shock and Soura was silent, absorbing the unexpected information. After a moment the young man bent over laughing, and Nico almost was tempted to join in on his infectious bout of hilarity. After all, who would have expected such an outcome? The possibilities were just so _interesting_ , and he was eager to see how the young woman would develop with the huge change in circumstances.

"The Owl himself, you say?" Kanou was already typing away on his keyboard, rapidly working on a new set of plans. The development was clearly important enough for a large change in his previous ideas, it seemed. "How revolutionary, for two hybrids to successfully produce a child between them..." Nico and Souta slipped away with large smiles on their faces, and soon the only sounds in the large room were the faint sound of machinery from the Binge Eater's pod and Kanou's keyboard. Yes, this news was just the incentive to move things along, and the Clowns would be watching the fallout from the shadows with bloodthirsty glee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon-ish plot will briefly appear again the chapter after next. Next chapter is pretty much all reactions from Anteiku and others associated with Kaneki. We also will see a reappearance of sweet Mrs. Inoue, Seidou's gossipy grandma!
> 
> *Excusez-moi—Excuse me/Pardon me/I beg your pardon  
> *Nique ta mère!—Fuck your mother! This is one of the rudest and most loaded insults in French, only use it if you're willing to risk getting punched in the face. It's generally saved for when people are very furious or otherwise upset, and Tsukiyama was directing it at the baby's 'mystery' father for touching Kanna.
> 
> I'd like to thank the anonymous guest who provided the 75th Kudo, and everyone else who has left a Kudo or a comment. The 100 Kudo mark is nearly reached, and the current comment count is 34 comments not counting my own (I reply to everyone). The viewer count is astounding me most of all, already past 1,500 in roughly one month! Merci beacoup! Thank you all for your interest and support, it means a lot to me.


	9. I Have Returned!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not an update, but an explanation. Desolé!

Bonjour, everyone. I have returned at long last.

I would firstly like to apologize for the long wait and lack of any updates. Due to circumstances beyond my control, it has been more than a year since I first published this story, almost a year since the last posted chapter. I am thankful that the reception from all of you has been truly amazing, and I admire your patience with me.

I was in a car accident last August that left me comatose for several months. Il était désagréable. I woke up in late March and I am still undergoing physical therapy now. I should make a full recovery soon enough, though I will have some permanent scarring on my legs and torso. C’est la vie, best to look at the silver lining rather than focusing on the dark clouds.

I am glad to be alive, but dismayed at how much time I have lost and things I have missed. Mais! The last time I was reading TG:re, chapter 140 was newly out, I was looking forward to seeing the new Star Wars, and I was about to start a new year at university. I missed all of the fall semester and spring semester, so I will have to take my classes a year late with different classmates and teachers. Pourrait être pire, I suppose?

 

Someone has mentioned to me in private that they came across my active Dreamwidth and I would like to clarify that matter here and now. My twin brother was active on Dreamwidth due to us sharing our account, but he has no interest in writing and he has little interest in reading something written by his sister that contains sexual content, so he did not go here. So to those of you who were wondering, you all were witnessing my brother posting requests I had intended to put up on a few forums and...blowing off steam, I suppose the term would be.

I have some content for new chapters and an outline of my intended path for the plot of this story, but I have not been capable of working on anything for months other than doing my best to recover. I will be trying to catch up on TG so that I can ensure the characters are still IC, and I may rewrite sections, but I intend to continue this until the end. 

When the new chapter is up in a few weeks I will delete this note. Please be patient with me a little bit longer, mes amours!


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